Radiant Awakening
by L2X
Summary: The world is hurdling towards destruction and the denizens are unaware, to focused at one another's throats. A hero is desperately needed. Will it be the silver-haired maiden, the unwilling Queen, the mercenary or the Fell Dragon and his ghost companion. Awakening/Radiant Dawn. (Pairings up for suggestion. Maybe.)
1. Chapter 1 My Choice

**A.N Yes this an Awakening and Radiant Dawn crossover.**

 **For those of those who noticed this is in fact an updated version**

 **Radiant Awakening**

 **Chapter 1 My Choice**

* * *

The loud clashes of steel, magic and the occasional dragon breath of the Shepherds can be heard from the distance all the while an equal amount of clashes can also be discerned from the Risen that seek to challenge the Shepherds. The Risen, no matter how foal they were created, are at the very least strong opponents to be reckoned with. But they face an uphill battle where they must face the most experienced Anti-Risen Army; the Shepherds. Even without my assistance, they should with time overcome these odds.

But none of that matters now.

What does matter is what is happening here and now.

Behind me, Chrom on his knees. Suffering a magic wound to his right side.

Lucina laid out to the far right of where I'm standing. Still desperately holding onto her Falchion and her consciousness.

Grima holding a hand on his chest where his heart would've been. Instead a gash took it's place, courtesy of Lucina's sudden and ferocious attack that left even Grima reeling.

And myself; breathing hard from exertion and left completely defenseless without my last weapon, my Levin sword, destroyed from defending against Grima's retaliatory attack that would've taken Chrom's life.

But none of that matters now.

I have Grima right where I want him. Furthermore Chrom and Lucina are incapacitated meaning they wouldn't be able to intervene from what I have to do.

I put everything I have left into my last attack; the rest of my internal magic reserves, my love, my hope and all of my sorrow. All of it condensed and given shape into my last Ignis.

It seems too finally to dawn on everyone there on what I was going to do. I see in my peripheral vision, Lucina screaming herself hoarse. Maybe in a final attempt to stop me but the words never seemed to reach me unlike the last time we spoke. I can feel Chrom attempt to stand and reach out to me and knock some sense into my admittedly thick skull. But he too fell short and would've collapsed if he didn't use his Awakened Falchion to steady himself. Even Grima to my surprise has shown some modicum of shock and fear with his trembling lips as he spoke his usual and hopefully last arrogant monologue.

But none of that matters now.

Their words. Their actions. Will never reach me now. I've gone too far to go back now and listen to their pleas. Doing so will only instill doubt to my already shattered confidence which would be catastrophic now that we are at the endgame. Now is the time for decisive action, yes, I would never risked so much if it didn't result in winning everything.

Chrom, Lucina and the rest of the Shepherds would be devastated, heck they might be downright furious once they fully take everything in. But none of that matters now.

With Ignis finally charged up I can finally end this, but first . . .

" **GRIMA!** " Robin yelled silencing everyone; even the clashes of battle seemed too died down when he spoke. "You are a scourge that devastated Lucina's world and would do the same here if you are not stopped. So it ends here; **YOU DIE NOW!** "

Before a reply can be made a dark ethereal beam launch from Robin's now extended right arm. Robin's brand now fully exposed as the glove is ripped off from the intense energy surge.

" **IGNIS!** "

In no time at all the ghostly beam hits Grima squarely in the chest. Unused to the pain of receiving his own attack; Grima's corporeal form begin to disappear from our own eyes from the bottom up, but even so Grima attempted to resist. But resistance was futile, in a few seconds the dark smoke that was once Grima's body finally disappeared from existence.

A breath of fresh air was what I needed as it finally hit me that I killed Grima, forever. But of course it was without cost. Looking down where my feet were supposed to be I wasn't surprised to find the same cloud moving up my own body. Maybe it's okay if I indulge a bit a start paying attention to my friends. As I turn around to face them I was met with.

Silence.

Funny how the lack of response speaks volumes.

"Chrom" Robin spoke in a voice so familiar yet so distant.

"I'm glad you and Lissa woke me up that day. You have no idea how much it means to me. And I just wanted to say. Thank you, thank you for everything."

My eyes began to wander to each individual Shepherd as tears begin to fall from each of their faces. My own face began the urge to let loose the water works but I sucked it back up as I looked for the face I wanted to see the most.

Lucina's face was moist from a combination of sweat, blood from a small cut to her side and tears flowing from her eyes which honestly didn't detract from her beauty at all.

From there I decided to give her my last response. With my body from the armpits down gone, I gave her my genuine smile and warm words.

"Thank you, Lucina."

The smile never faltered even when his whole head finally disappeared in a black cloudy mist.

* * *

When I suddenly opened my eyes I noticed I was in an empty white expanse that seemed to stretch on forever. It also seems that going to any direction gives the impression of not moving at all. It's a quaint feeling; being dead and all maybe I can . . .

"You know for someone who's supposed to be dead your taking this quite well."

I quickly turned around to meet the source of the eerily familiar voice. There sitting on presumably nothing, a bored looking man looked at me with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms. He was wearing a long black coat with strange purple symbols, long brown boots, baggy pants, and very white hair. He had a very spitting image of, well, me except for his bloody red eyes. Then it finally hit me, only one name came to mind.

"Grima."

"Robin." Grima responded.

After blinking once in confusion I realize I spoke his name without thinking, not the greatest thing to do with the Fell dragon but he's dead, what could he do? So might as well play along with him.

"The same can easily be said with you. The 'immortal god of destruction' or something asinine like that." I sarcastically replied.

To my surprise Grima didn't respond in his usual manner of arrogance and grandiose theatrics.

"I understand why you'll think like that." He calmly notes. "And just a heads up I'm a lot calmer now than I was before."

"Calmer?" Clearly confused he could use such a word. "Do you mean you weren't yourself before?"

"When I gained overwhelming power; that power consumed me to the point of madness." Nodding his head in approval by the fact I understood. "Just like the Earth dragons of old."

"That doesn't excuse anything you've done!" I immediately bite back.

"It was never meant to be an excuse." Looking me straight in the eye. His calm demeanor ever present. "Merely wanted to inform you of the fact."

A soft snort left my nostrils as I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I didn't want to believe it because it did make some sense considering the parallels with the legends associated with the War of Shadows and the Hero-King.

"Well, anything else you want to inform me off?" I quip. Still willing to play along with this new Grima.

"Anything in particular?"

"Where are we exactly?" I immediately ask.

"Purgatory?" He says thoughtfully.

"You don't know?" Raising my own eyebrow in interest.

"I was never dead before now." Grima addressed now resting his right leg on his left in an admittedly comfortable position. "So everything that happens from here on out is quite new to me."

"Hold on." Now raising my hand up as I'm now fully realizing what Grima was telling me. "You're really dead?"

The doppelganger with no change to his tone nodded his head. "Yes and no. My physical body is 100 percent dead. But my spirit is currently, slowly eroding away mostly due to my divine dragon lineage. So given sufficient time I'll be dead through and through."

I just couldn't believe it. All the suffering and death the future children were forced to endure and could've been wrought in my time. Finally gone. I could almost just laugh from the sheer absurdity of the situation except for the fact he's telling me this. I'm here with a dying Grima.

"Am I dead?" I cautiously ask, almost afraid for the answer he could give me.

"Not exactly." If Grima was attempting to be comforting, he was doing a piss poor job. "Like me your physical existence has disappeared, but your spirit is still able to retain itself."

"So it's possible to return to my world?"

I was very eager to hear what he is going to say. If someone were to tell me I would be asking Grima on how to get home after killing him; I would have slapped them for their irrational and offensive remark. Yet here I am.

"Yes."

"How?" I was simply too eager after hearing what I wanted to hear.

Grima took a good look at my person and answered calmly. "You can't see it but I can see you're still tethered to reality.

"Tethered?" I said dumbly.

"Those ties you've created with the Shepherds, getting to know them, laughing with them, suffering with them and even loving them. Creating those friendships and relationships that can even transcend space. So they pull at you, they tug onto your spirit and those same ties will, in time, return you home."

Silence.

I simply refused to make any sort of reaction for fear of him laughing at my naivety with his ever present arrogance. I like to think I'm a pretty good judge of character. So when I look at Grima's relaxed form; I decide that everything he said is the truth.

"You're serious?" Seeking some reassurance from an evil god.

"Very."

"Why are you so . . . ?" I trailed off, trying to find the right word.

"Friendly?" Grima finished the thought in an amused tone.

"Cooperative is the better word here." Correcting him as describing Grima as anything as friendly seems heretical.

Slapping his left thigh, Grima answered.

"Well, being lucid once again made me a bit . . . introspective of my previous actions."

"Are you saying you feel guilty of what you did?" I say flabbergasted.

"Not exactly." Shaking his head. "The guilt I'm feeling isn't entirely my own."

Okay now Grima is speaking some nonsense here.

"What? What do you mean by 'not your own'?"

For once Grima looked unwilling to answer as he seem to decide that looking at the eternal nothing was much more interesting. But a minute later he seemed to make up his mind as he returned his gaze back to me.

"When you look at me, what do you see?"

Is this some sort of trick question? Is he trying to deceive me with some clever wordplay? Or is this some sort of test? All I see is my face but with red eyes.

My face with red eyes.

"Robin's face with red eyes." I answer aloud as recognition dawns on me.

"That's right, those are primarily Robin's feelings. The Robin who became my vessel at least."

Grima took this time to rise from his invisible seat as his eyes became level with mine he began to continue his explanation with a soft smirk and pointed finger to his skull.

"When I took over Robin's body his spirit never died, merely suppressed by my own overwhelming presence. So when you 'killed' me you destroyed that overwhelming presence and so Robin's spirit became on par to mine. Which means his feelings can 'leak out' at times."

"So everything you've just done wasn't your own doing?" I ask wondering about this new development.

"No it was ultimately my decision to reveal all of this to you." Finally putting his finger away. "It seems that Robin's spirit is still subordinate to my own, most likely because of my draconic heritage. That's the running theory of course."

Once Grima ended his explanation he sat right back down onto is invisible seat.

"Think about it like this." Looking back up at me. "It's like your inner conscious having its own personality giving you some sage advice."

"So Robin speaks directly to your spirit?" Finally wrapping my head around on what I've just been told.

Grima thinly smiled as he was glad you got the gist of it. "Yes, he's actually pretty good company. Even if he'll be a bit smug for winning his bet against me."

"Bet?" Wondering what he's going on about.

"Yes, he and I made a bet on who would be leaving this place first. Me." Pointing his right thumb to himself and immediately pointing his index finger at me. "Or you."

I almost asked him what he was on about until a feeling of weightlessness hit. Looking down I noticed many purple colored sparkles consume me from the bottom up.

"That felt like no time at all." I dumbly comment.

"Or it felt like a lifetime." Grima rebutted. "Keep in mind time here doesn't seem to follow the same rules as our world. But that's irrelevant since you won't be needing that information."

"I suppose you're right." I softly agreed. Patiently waiting for the purple sparks to consume me.

"Hey before you go can I ask for a favor?" Grima asked breaking my own musing.

"What is it?"

"When you meet everyone . . . "He paused looking away from me once again. "Say Robin is sorry for failing all of you."

I should be surprised for this change of personality, but considering what just happened . . .

"Okay, I'll tell them you're sorry." Smiling for the first and the last time here.

The former Fell God chuckled at my choice of words. He chuckled, didn't realize he can feel humor that isn't in the sadistic side.

"Thanks. I mean it." His smile now morphing into a mischievous smirk. "Also you should let her hit you when you reunite with your sweetheart. You kind of deserve it."

"Wait, what do you mean by th . . ."But before I can continue to question him the purple sparks fully consumed Robin returning him to his home and loved ones. Leaving behind a condemned monster and his guilty conscience.

* * *

"That went better than I expected." A disemboweled voice in Grima's head commented. "You can actually be pleasant company when you put in the effort."

"Oh laugh it off." Grima lightly threatens with a light smack to his own head. "I'm glad it would be only you two that got to see me like this."

Even with Robin gone, I'm not alone in this forsaken place. The soul of the Robin that ultimately became my vessel will forever be my companion until the end comes. Since this'll be the end maybe it's time to . . .

"Do you think they're be accepting to what Robin is going to tell them?" The disemboweled voice hummed.

"If he is sincere, they will be more than accommodating to your apology,"

"What do you mean by _my_ apology? Don't you mean _ours_?" The Voice said with a smug tone.

"Robin is smart enough not to include _me_ into _your_ apology." Grima huffed. "There is simply too much hate going around. It isn't even misplaced hate which makes it worse."

"Do you honestly believe no one will ever think of you in the positive light?"

Grima didn't dignify that with a response instead busying himself by feeling the palm of his right hand with the opposite thumb. Feeling the rough callused hand that at one point held a Levin sword; all the while ignoring the Mark of Grima on the back of his hand.

After long silence, Grima's musing was interrupted by what sounded like an exasperated exhale of air.

"You know you can't hide anything from me." Robin loudly exclaimed. "I have a clear view of your soul which is everything to a person."

"And why can't I do the same with your soul?"

It is a rather unfair arrangement. But considering this was forced down upon Robin, fairness is the last thing to be thinking about.

"You're asking the wrong soul here. Practical applications of soul and spirit theory are beyond me." He bemused.

Even Grima had to agree. Only the very basics in spirit transfers between separate bodies were explored and that was later downgraded to one-sided transfer when it became apparent to be unnecessarily complex.

"But that's beside the point." Robin, taking over the conversation. "You're also curious why I'm accepting the fact I'll being dying with you?"

Welp. That proves that Robin isn't bullshitting.

"When I peer into your soul. Your whole history is before me. At least the parts that led us here." The ghost comments.

"What exactly did you see?" Actually a bit sickened by the fact someone could have a complete history of himself. Well with the exception of _them_.

"Well, just about everything; when you first woke up sane, you spending time revolutionizing dark magic and hex's, your relationship with the other dragons and humans, and of course the Great Schism." Robin informs.

Ah. The Great Schism was a period of time in which the old Kingdoms of Archanea and Valm collapsed and all contact with Jugdral was lost. It ended with Grima sealed to the Dragon's table by the first Exalt of Ylisse and the Fire Emblem divided up among the successor states.

"While it is true, you being sealed to the Dragon's table can be considered as the end of the Schism." Robin began to address. "The general belief that you _caused_ the Great Schism is utterly false and I'm actually ashamed to admit I was a subscriber to that school of thought."

"So you got a good history lesson. So what? Grima huffs while crossing his arms in clear disapproval.

"Grima, everything you did up to your insanity was done _under_ the pressures and other externalities of the chaotic time period." Robin points out hoping Grima gets what he is getting at. "In an absolute vacuum your decisions may seem unnecessarily cruel and heinous, but given the context, you were forced to make very hard choices that was either bad or worse."

"Are you taking pity on me?" He accused.

"No. That's the last thing you need. Let's just say I understand. To a degree." Robin respectfully said aloud. "You have to remember that my and the other Robin's experiences were vastly different because of two facts. One, I still had my memories and two, the night of Emmeryn's assassination."

Grima kept his silence even though he was very aware of Robin's circumstances, but he was respectful and kept quiet while listening to Robin.

"Because of these two facts the war against the Mad King was significantly longer and didn't end, nearly as neatly. The Valmese actually broke out of Port Ferox before we forced them back to the ocean. The Valmese Campaign was nearly a slaughter and would've been if it I didn't save Tiki from an attempted assassination perpetuated by Excellus. When Validar and the Grimleal continued the war after the campaign, not a single grimleal we encountered was given mercy. Sure Chrom and I did our best to mitigate the suffering, but it was _never_ enough."

"When it came to the safety of the Shepherds and Ylisse compared to everything else, I made the conscious decision to prioritize the Shepherds." Finally reaching his conclusions he continued. "It was hard, and many unnecessarily died and suffered for of it. But like you it was for the greater good and unluckily for us, our ends came because of another's ambitions."

"That doesn't change the fact I forced you to kill everyone you know and love." Grima pointed out. "Especially Chrom."

"But it does let me know that it wasn't _you_ or I who committed it." Robin calmly states.

Grima snorted in amusement. Everything about him is quite fucked up and listening to one of his victims say that to him actually meant a great deal to him. It's no forgiveness but he isn't complaining.

"Well then let's have a toast." Mockingly raising an imagined mug. "Two souls about to reach their maker."

Before any affirmation can be heard Grima immediately felt a feeling he thought would never feel again. A feeling of warmth, calm and grace; a feeling he would normally seethe if he was anywhere near it. A feeling that was right behind him.

His draconic reflexes allowed him to rise from his unseen seat and hastily turn around to meet this familiar feeling.

The Divine Dragon Naga in all her glory was now looking straight onto, her now standing archenemy. Her long flowing green hair in good order, her tiara shiny and minimalist as usual, her revealing outfit; showing off her immaculate skin. All the while carrying herself in a way any dignified goddess would; with pride and without a single hint of arrogance.

All that Grima did was gape at her with genuine shock as he didn't believe she would pay him a visit. But before he could make any sort of response Naga decided to preempt her rival.

"If you want Grima, I could keep you company." Naga conversationally stated.

Grima could only stare blankly at Naga as he was too stunned with the sudden turn of events. Only then did he hear clicking noises in his head.

*Snap* *Snap* "Grima! Focus!" Robin said gaining Grima's attention.

Only now did he realize, Robin was snapping his fingers. Without any fingers or a body. In fact didn't he exhale in exasperation earlier, implying he could breathe? But those are questions for later. Right now, for better or for worse, he needs to give Naga his full attention.

"What are you doing here Naga?" As Grima eyes her critically. "You're not here for pleasantries so spit it out."

"Well that didn't last long, did it?" Shutting her eyes and shaking her head in disappointment.

"Answer the damn question!" Grima demands as his irritation is rising rather quickly.

"You need to calm down Grima." Robin in his head advises. "She isn't here to gloat at our coming end. That's beneath her."

Before Grima can internally send a rather polite message of shutting up to the free-rider, Naga intervened.

"Robin is correct Grima. I'm merely here to give you an offer." She calmly states to defuse the situation.

"You know he's also here." More of a statement then a question.

"Yes, you can't see it Grima but there is a clear visage of two souls in one body." She continues in a fond manner. "But I only recognized that because of our shared history together."

That's an understatement if I didn't know one. But if this conversation is going anywhere he needed to take Robin's advice and calmly listen to what she has to say. Even if it is rather irritating she would use my own words against me.

"Alright then." As the Fell Dragon calmly breathes out. "I'll once again get straight to the point, why are you here?"

A soft huff escaped from the goddess's lips as it was clear she prepared a long monologue before she got to the actual proposal. To Grima's satisfaction.

"I'm here to offer the both of you a second chance."

An honest to god laugh nearly escaped Grima's mouth, but luckily Robin preempted him.

"You shouldn't laugh at an offer like this, Grima." He scolded. "We both know you always wanted something like this."

To be fair to Grima he only scowled, but not because his passenger was siding with his nemesis, not because he knew Naga heard the voice (or lack of thereof) of support but because he was right yet again about his true feelings. Hopefully this doesn't become a trend.

"So you're offering us community service?" A joke but still an on point observation. "A way for us to give back what we have taken away?"

A single blink came before a soft smile formed on the old manaketes face as she was very happy he got the gist of what she was offering.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm offering. So what will be your answer."

Luckily Robin took the hint and stayed out of his thought process as this was Grima's choice alone. Really this isn't a hard choice it's this or death.

"Alright then." A small smirk appearing on his face. "What exactly do we have to do?"

"Out there, in the great sea of probability, is a world in chaos and on the verge of destruction." Naga dramatically performs clearly happy of Grima's choice. Or that she got to do her monologue; either one. "The two races are in the precipice of all-out war, all the while an ancient evil is dwelling in the shadows preparing to strike at the most opportune time, in fact the opening shots have already been felt throughout the continent. But there is time to stop the key from turning. You two mus-"

"And that's where we come in." Grima purposely interrupting to miff his rival. "We rally the two factions under one banner to defeat the evil once and for all. Am I right."

A sigh from Robin and glare from Naga is all the response Grima got.

Rubbing her forehead in annoyance Naga confirmed Grima's interruption.

"Essentially yes, you two must save this world."

"A rather tall order even with the two of us." Grima thought aloud while rubbing his chin. "What exactly will we be working with?"

"Well you'll be working with this."

Immediately saying those words Naga clapped her hands together creating a bright light that forced Grima to close his eyes shut and put up his hands to stop the light from reaching him. But it was a futile gesture as he was immediately blinded by the intense brightness. As the blindness persisted he clearly heard a female voice speak to them.

"Good luck, the both of you." The voice now recognized as Naga suddenly changed from its usual dignified tone to one of sorrow as she directly spoke to Grima. "And Grima, I'm sorry, for everything."

And when the voice was finished, both Robin and Grima were knocked out unconscious as their spirits traveled through the endless sea of the Outrealms to their destination.

* * *

"Do you think we . . ."

". . . Safety must come . . ."

". . . no better than . . ."

". . . shelter to re . . ."

Voices. How did they get here and why does it feel like every one of his body parts is on fire?

"The headache is too damn loud and I have a massive voice." Somehow those words escaped Grima's mouth before consciousness escapes him once again.

Sometime later, Grima's consciousness returned along with the positive and negative feelings of his body. He was hungry, thirsty, lying on his back on some hard surface with a killer headache. But at least he can feel. Slowly he was able to finally get his eyes to open to look around. But upon opening his eyes he was immediately assaulted by a bright light but instead of the bright blue sky the light was concentrated by an opening in the jagged rocky roof.

'So some sort of cave? That would explain the hard surface.' He thought to himself.

Grima further tested his motor skills by bringing his right hand with the brand within eyesight. It was a slow process but he noted he was still clothed in Robin's tactician garb. That most likely means he's still in his body, white hair and all. At least it's something familiar. While trying to use his elbows to get himself in a sitting position, a hand lightly pressed on his right shoulder stopping his upward momentum. When Grima looked at the figures face he noticed he was moving his mouth and sounds were coming out in a soft melodic tone.

Words were clearly spoken, but they were some foreign tongue that is very unfamiliar to Grima. With that realization he slowly turned to the one who spoke and has their hand on his shoulder to find a very fair and handsome face humanoid with long blonde hair and pristinely white wings looking at him with concern.

"Who . . ." Before Grima could finish his question a female voice made themselves known.

"Rafiel! Be considerate to his situation there is a high likely hood he has no idea what you're saying." The new voice wasn't alone as a second figure, this time male, was right beside her.

As he got a good look at them he notice the female wore an eye-patch and the two of them wore very loose and revealing outfits, heck the male doesn't even have a shirt. But a peculiar feature is that they were wearing peculiar animal ears and tail. Or those were their body parts.

"Yes that was rather thoughtless of me." The winged blond agreed. "But we know the song soothes his body and spirit."

A song that soothes body and mind does not exist. At least not in my world . . .

And it was that moment did Grima finally realize he was in a different world and was way over his head. And the only logical thing to do was to-

Rafiel returned to look concernly at his patient as he began to tremble and fall back onto the hard surface with a loud thud. His eyes were closed shut, his face red and his mouth was puckered. He was about to hum another one of his songs until he noticed the white hair male open his mouth.

" **THAT BIT-** "

* * *

 **A.N. Yup, I'll be committing myself to this, unless this is poorly received of course. So please Review on your favorite parts (or the lack of thereof) or how to improve, what should be removed, etc. This was done without a beta reader so if you have time please P.M me if you want to my beta reader.**

 **Edit: To the guest reviewer**

 **I'm very happy of your review and I agree with many of your points and I updated the chapter to reflect one of those points. Sadly I won't be addressing all of them now since they are in fact future plot points. But in regards to Ashera noticing Grima's presence I have to disagree, at least in its immediancy. There will be investigations into Grima's person but not in that way. For now at least. So again thank you for the review and hopefully I'll read from you again.**


	2. Chapter 2 The Awakening

**A.N Yes this is continuing.**

 **Also anyone interested, I need a beta reader.**

 **Radiant Awakening**

 **Chapter 2 The Awakening**

* * *

"-CH!"

Not two seconds have passed after finishing his cursing did a familiar presence make itself known.

"You really didn't have to say that out loud." Robin said disapprovingly.

Whelp. That answers a couple of questions, yet adds another. But right now Grima needs to act quickly before this situation gets out of hand.

Taking a moment to decompress his frustrations and carefully listening for any reactions his outburst may have brought upon to his company. After confirming they were still quiet, most likely waiting for him to make any more outbursts, Grima sat up from his laying position.

"I apologize for that outburst. It's rather unbecoming of me to swear that loudly, especially in present company. " Grima said. "But I just recalled the events that led me to this situation."

"And what exactly led to you being unconscious in the Desert of Death?" The animal eared lady questioned.

"Great, another desert. Comes with an original name too." Robin sarcastically huffed.

"I was with someone, someone who I had a falling out with." Grima said, silently ignoring and agreeing with Robin about their present situation. "She and I recently came to a mutual understanding and we were about to go on our separate ways. But it seems she wanted to score one last point on me before we left each other."

Taking a look at the tattooed woman, she had a questioning look. Not one of disbelief but one of slow understanding. She then turned away and looked at the man who was still kneeling to Grima's side.

The man's face, who is now named Rafiel, looked at Grima rather intently as if he was studying every inch of his being.

"I see." The blond nodded, accepting Grima's explanation.

"My name is Grima." He introduced himself before any more questions goes his way. "I'm a traveling mage and before I forget. Thank you, for helping me."

Grima needed to take control of the conversation to filter any information he could inadvertently give away and subtlety extract any useful information in turn. It's not that he's intending to lie or deceive to his new benefactors without reason; but the situation demands a gentle touch. His earlier display is picture proof of that fact.

"I'm glad we could be of help, Grima." The blond man said. "My name is Rafiel a Heron while my two companions are . . ."

"I am Queen Nailah of Hatari." Nailah said taking over introductions. "This here is my loyal vassal Volug. We came here traveling from the east."

"You're a Queen of a country east of here?" Grima questioned.

He honestly couldn't believe this twist of fate and judging by the flabbergasting noises Robin is making, he couldn't either. This can't be a coincidence and thinking on this a little bit he came to a single answer. Naga.

"Yes, we can understand your confusion, Beorc." Completely misunderstanding Grima's confusion. "Until we met Rafiel, I thought Hatari was alone in the world since no one can cross the Desert of Death and live to tell the tale. The only reason we were able to cross was thanks to Rafiel's guidance."

Beorc? Is that what he is? A quick swipe of his ears shown no sharpness similar to that of a manakete. He is still human looking as far as he knows.

He is simply way out of his depth, not enough contexts to the answers he's getting. And outright asking for answers that are presumably common sense would be too suspicious.

But that doesn't mean he can't ask for specific questions about someone. "And you're a heron?" Grima asked.

"Yes I am, of the Serenes. What's left of it at least." Rafiel answered. "Tell me; are you perhaps a dark mage?"

Grima had to admit, Robin's tactician cloak does give off a dark mage vibe. But beyond that of looks, how could he come to such a conclusion? Luckily the question didn't come with a tone of suspicion or caution that usually accompanies this line of questioning.

"Yes." Grima flatly answers.

Grima may not have been up front about his true abilities, but his non-specific answer is still accurate since any dark mage worth their salt, branch out to any of the Anima magics.

At least that's the norm in his world.

But if they thought this extra detail to be significant, their subdued reactions certainly didn't reflect that.

Especially when Rafiel asked another question that completely brushed over the previous topic.

"Is it possible you've heard a voice guiding you here?"

A rather odd question. Is this the angle they were aiming for the whole time?

"It's possible Naga guided them here." Robin suggested.

Not an implausible idea; it does have its merits. But it's simply too dangerous to make such an event-defining assumption. It will basically make me a messenger of god; such a boisterous title will only serve to gain unwanted scrutiny at such a precarious time.

But outright rejecting it would be too hasty.

"The last time I heard a voice, it was the voice of my former companion." Grima answered.

More vague-answers but if his answer bothered them they've shown no indication of it, only the affirmative nod from Rafiel.

"I'm curious, what made you guess that I was a dark mage?" Grima asked returning to the previous topic.

"One of your tomes looked like one." Nailah brusquely answered then pointing toward a corner where a small pile of tomes and other items laid. "Not like I've seen one before now, it was Rafiel who pointed out its true nature."

"Yes, it was I who discerned the nature of your tome." Rafiel bringing attention to himself. "Even though I myself have never seen a dark tome before now, I've been in contact with light magic and the two are opposite's sides of the coin as they say."

"You know that's a misconception." Everyone raised an eyebrow to Grima as he began to go into instructor mode. "They may be on opposite sides but as you said they are on the coin. The fundamental structures of the two arts are very similar and besides of a few core differences, are separated mostly because of human interpretation. So it is entirely possible for a spell to be classified as either light or dark magic and still be correct."

"Alright, we get it. You're the first dark mage we've met, so we were curious. No need to go all out on us." Nailah said.

"No need to be disappointed Grima." Robin chirped. "They don't seem to be magically inclined so anything you say about the nuances of equivalent exchange will go over their heads."

Grima had to admit he was a bit disappointed, that little spiel brought back old memories of his instructor days.

But that was behind him.

"As much as I want to continue talking with you, would it be alright if I went and gathered up all my belongings?" He asked.

"Can you stand?" Rafiel said with a concerned look on his face.

"Yes."

Standing up with a hint of stiffness to his legs and arms from lying on the ground too long. Grima walked past Nailah and the ever quiet Volug toward the stack of tomes.

Various kinds of tomes were stacked on top each other with tactical and magical tomes found; it seemed Robin recognized the tactical tomes through their distinguished authors. The magical tomes consisted mostly that of the arc-thunder and arc-fire flavors along with his sole 'dark' tome which turns out to be his own personalized tome; Truth.

Contrary to what the names and the aesthetics' implies; the tome Validar wielded -conveniently named 'Grima's Truth'- and the tome here are two different tomes that use two different types of magic. Grima's Truth is a true dark tome, through and through in the same vein the Book of Naga is a light tome, Valflame a fire tome, etc. While Truth is connected to Grima's internal mana base similar to that of Divine Dragon magic which he referred to as Fell magic.

To any layman this may seem trivial but if you were to use Truth, you would essentially be using the magic that of a god unlike to that of the tomes Valflame, Forseti, Loptyr or The Book of Naga which are more imitations.

And good luck trying to hide that fact. It was using this type of magic that Grima was identified as the user by Naga and the rest of the Divine dragons and if it wasn't for the good counsel of Xane and Bantu, he would've been officially ostracized.

Leaving the tome with the others, he took a look at the sheathed Levin sword leaning on the stack of tomes and chuckled lightly. He was never a fan of the martial arts but maybe Robin would give him some helpful tips to learn to use a sword and tome at the same time.

There to the side of the tome stack were two brown pouches; one was larger than the other with the larger one looking like a coin pouch, a rather large one. Taking an interest with the smaller pouch; Grima picked it up, to only take a quick peek at its contents and then quickly tying it to the right side of his belt.

Grima returned his attention back to his coin pouch by sitting down and counting every coin it contained.

To the Laguz this seemed to be ordinary; just someone confirming if he still had all of his possessions. But they failed to see the frantic internal dialogue happening in Grima's head.

"Is it really that much of a surprise to see your own stone again?" Robin asked.

"Yes." Grima responds as he just past the 16 coin mark. "It is exactly what it looked the last time I've seen it. The same light purple-hue, the same hexagonal cut and the same six-eye mark of Grima. All of it the same when he took it from me."

Robin stayed silent and just as Grimas count pass 64 he spoke again.

"It's not like I was overly attached to it." Grima began to reminisce. "Like Bantu and Xane, I was actually much more comfortable in my humanoid form and because of that I very rarely turned into my dragon self. Some even said I didn't have a dragon-stone or lost it just like Xane, but only a trusted few knew where it truly was. Like Alex.

"I'm surprised you could say his name that fondly." Robin noted in surprise.

"He was my best student." Grima shrugged after counting his 128 coin. "His accomplishments would have stood the test of time. If of course I didn't start running amok right after his death and that very effective cover-up."

Taking care to steer the conversation away from this topic Robin asked. "Were you ashamed of your dragon form?"

A slight pause from 144 count until Grima responded. "I wouldn't say so. Sure it wasn't as elegant to say . . . Nagi's form but it's _my_ form, I would certainly own it."

Robin hummed in approval to the answer he just heard. Seems his fear of Grima's past wouldn't come to past. For now.

"You know." Catching Robin's attention, Grima continued. "I may have messed up with the whole 'Naga sending us away incident'."

"Really?" Robin says sarcastically.

"Well I didn't think she would go this far!" Grima defending himself.

To Grima it felt like Robin was pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration as he began to speak.

"Well, it's at least my own opinion that Naga wouldn't put us in this situation if she didn't have confidence in us. I mean you do have some experience in this kind of situation."

"Come again?" Grima asked just before he counted to 160.

"When you woke up the second time from your first sleep; the world was very new to you, similar to now." Robin thought. "Of course this situation is vastly different to then but in essence it's the same."

Grima knew where he was going with this line of thought and had to admit he was very right.

"You're right Robin, except for one important detail." Catching Robin's attention. "When I first woke up it was Bantu who found me."

"I don't see the difference." Robin said.

"Bantu, as you may know was a very wise and experienced dragon due to his longevity." Grima said. "But he was also very well informed of the current state of the world."

It seemed that Robin began to catch on but Grima continued.

"Rafiel, Nailah and Volug may be friendly and up-front to us but that doesn't change the fact of how ignorant they are to the greater world. Heck, Nailah outright admitted she thought Hatari was the only country to exist."

"Well Rafiel seems to know more." Robin pondered. "He mentioned he was part of this 'Serenes'."

"Most likely that was what his kingdom or tribe was called." Grima responded. "Judging by what he said, he is a survivor when his tribe was destroyed. Like Panne and the rest of the Taguel."

"But we won't know for sure unless we ask." Robin said.

"That's the plan." Grima said as he finished counting 250 blank gold coins.

Standing to gather the rest of his things, Grima noted the obscene amount of carrying capacity this cloak has. Seriously, there is room to comfortably carry 5 tomes and not be overburdened. With his Levin sword strapped in last, Grima made his way back to the beasts.

Rafiel was the first to speak. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, everything seems to be in order." Grima said. "I am truly thankful you all were able to help me in my time of need."

"No need to be so thankful." Nailah frankly said. "Rafiel said you were a good person, so we did what was necessary."

"And I'm glad I can be of help." Rafiel reiterating once again.

"I'm curious. What was that song you mentioned earlier?" Grima asked.

"Ah, I used my Galdrar to help you recover from whatever was ailing you." Rafiel answered.

"Galdrar?" Grima repeated. "Is it some sort of vocal healing spell?"

"That is one way of putting it. Galdrars are arcane songs sung in the ancient language that, depending on the melody and lyrics, have effects on the listener. In your case I sang the Galdrar of Bliss to ease your soul." Rafiel said.

"Do all Herons have this ability?" Grima asked.

"All Heron's know how to sing a Galdrar." Rafiel calmly answered. "But some Herons may be more experienced or privileged to know different types of songs."

"Are you by chance privileged?" Grima asks.

Taking note of the split second of surprise Rafiel had in his eyes before his demeanor return to that of serene calm.

"Yes, these white wings are representative of my royal heritage." Rafiel answered.

Two royals? It was two royals and their vassal that he woke up too! Suddenly the notion that Naga intended this meeting to happen became a lot more believable. We're just missing the grassy fields and the bandits.

Taking care to internalize his surprise, Grima took to ask Rafiel some uncomfortable questions.

"You're a prince? A Prince of the Serenes?"

"Yes. At least was before its destruction." Rafiel says regretfully.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up." He meant it. "Sometimes I'm too curious for my own good."

"It's alright. You didn't know." Rafiel said reassuringly.

Grima swore he saw something in Rafiel's eyes. Recognition of something familiar? But he really needed to move the conversation along.

"Earlier you asked me if I heard a voice. Receiving a nod from Rafiel, Grima continued. "What do you mean by that?"

Rafiels eyes went wide when he realized what Grima was getting at. "I apologize for not expanding on that. For the past three years, a voice has called out to me. Day by day, it has grown stronger . . . Until the voice led me here where we found you."

"Am I what the voice was hoping to lead to?" Grima asked with a bit of hesitation.

"No, I don't think so." Rafiel immediately answered.

So it wasn't Naga that led them here? That is rather disappointing.

"What I meant is that I don't think the voice was leading me to a person per-say." Rafiel said. "I think it was I was meant to learn something."

"I see." Grima nodding his head. "I doubt you're interested in learning dark magic then?"

Smiling softly at his little joke, Rafiel answered back. "As interesting it may be, I must respectably decline."

"Before I forget." Grima said grabbing everyone's attention as he turned curiously to Volug. "I don't mean to be rude but why hasn't Volug say anything at all?"

"Ah, Its simple really." Nailah once again talking for Volug. "Volug can't speak Tellius Language."

"Tellius Language?" Letting the words flow out of Grima.

"Yes, Tellius Language it's what we are speaking now. But I suppose you call it modern language." Nailah thought.

"So I can't communicate at all with him?" Grima asked.

"He can understand quite well for just learning it a few years ago. It's the talking part that is difficult."

"You know Volug." Grima finding the opportunity too irresistible to pass up. "Learning to speak a new language is a very difficult process, take it from me; I have to learn all these archaic languages in these tomes. So if you need someone to practice with you can count on me." Grima offered. "Heck you can also help me learn the ancient language."

"Did you hear that Volug? You got yourself a teacher." Nailah joked.

" . . .Thank . . . ful?" Volug tepidly said.

"Thank you." Grima said emphasizing the 'you'.

"Thank . . . you." Volug said a bit muddled but perfectly comprehensible.

"Impressive. Have you ever thought of being a teacher?" Nailah humorously said.

"Well I'm not an aspiring mage." Grima said while totally not tooting his own horn. "I had many students learn from me."

But before anyone can respond a presence was coming towards them. It seems Grima wasn't the only one who noticed as he noted the ears of Volug and Nailah twitch but it seems Rafiel is unaware of the fact. Luckily whatever it was, it was small but fast.

A couple seconds of silence later a small redish-brownish bird comes flying in. The bird unperturbed by the people came to rest on the shoulder of the Heron."

"Oh hello, aren't you a little far from your home?" Rafiel calmly said.

This brought a very interesting thought to Grima. "I don't mean to offend but can you speak bird, Rafiel?"

"Not at all." Rafiel answers with a slight laugh. "But I'm sure she would understand this."

As he said that Rafiel began to sing a Galdrar. But this Galdrar Grima noted was different than the one he sang to him.

"Ah, this one truly fills me up." Nailah said as she strode to Grima's side with Volug in tow. "It just makes me want to cut loose and relax."

Just then a bright light engulfed both of the Laguz. After a moment the light dissipates revealing two large wolves. Even in transformation it seems the large wolves retain some of its accessories such as Volug's collar and Nailah's eye-cover.

As the wolves made their rest at each side of the singing Heron, Grima had to admit that the song was very soothing. But something was egging the back of his mind, and it wasn't Robin. Concentrating from the direction the bird seems to have come from he felt the all too familiar feelings of battle.

Taking the initiative, Grima immediately interrupted Rafiels rather soothing singing.

"I'm sorry for disturbing your singing but it seems there is an ongoing battle going on right now."

It was hard to get a read off of the transformed wolves but Grima did notice a look of sadness coming from Rafiel when he broke the news. Seems he should have taken account of the sensitivities of Rafiel.

"Yes, it seems there is." Nailah responded with an unconcerned tone. "Those Laguz bandits are fighting some beorc. They won't make it. The bandits I mean."

A slight glance of disapproval from Rafiel was given to Nailah for her careless comment but he reined in any spoken disapproval.

"Bandits?" Grima questions in a disbelieving tone. That went another point towards a conspiracy of irony perpetrated by Naga.

"Yes." Nailah confirms. "A rather meagre bunch, easily cowed. So don't worry, they won't be a problem."

"And those they're fighting?" Grima asking the real question.

"I don't believe they would be hostile to us." Rafiel responded.

"What makes you say that?"

"I have a feeling they . . ." Rafiel trailed off.

"They're what the voice was referring too." Grima finishing Rafiel's sentence.

A melodic hum was all Grima got as he got the silent message to not worry about this. Deciding to take their silent queues', Grima sat down taking out Truth to busy himself as Rafiel returned to his singing.

"Is this really the time to be lax?" Robin asked.

"They seem to think so." Grima answered pointing toward the relaxing wolves and the singing heron. "And I have to agree with them, I doubt either group can be a real threat."

A non-committal grunt was what Robin gave him.

"Besides this is an excellent opportunity to re-associate myself with my 'lost' works. Maybe I'll be able to find a normal enough spell I could use in battle." Grima said.

Losing himself in his personal tome and the beautiful hymn of Rafiel's Galdrar, Grima barely noticed the sounds of battle have just ended and two human presences were approaching their way. Taking a side glance toward his Laguz company; he noticed they were still blissfully unaware of the incoming intruders or simply chose to ignore it.

Just as Grima stood up; the two humans –one male, one female- came bursting in just as Rafiel was ending his latest Galdrar.

The male human was tall with green hair and yellow eyes. You could describe his physique as lanky but he strangely seems to wear a green sleeveless shirt that is too small for him; this is evident with his exposed midriff. He also sports a very large scarf around his neck that somehow floats behind him. This young lad also seems to be armed with several knives strewn around his belt.

By contrast the female human had silverish-white hair –similar to his own- the same yellowish eyes as the male. She looked petite in her purple dress and her disconnected sleeves.

It seems his and the Laguz presence was finally noticed as the green-haired fellow stood protectively with his knives out in front of the maiden.

Before anyone could respond the silver-haired maiden spoke first.

"You! Hello! Who are you?"

* * *

Even with the outward appearance of tension, Grima kept his calm analytical posture to gleam any information from the situation.

From the stance of the green-haired male, it's clear he is a very experienced fighter with those knives. Considering the build of his knives they appear to be throw-able, bringing his effective combat range quite far.

But he doubts those knives could pierce the thick fur of the wolf Laguz, let alone his dragon-skin.

But the girl, upon further inspection shows she is holding a white and golden book. From the negative reaction his stomach is giving him when he actively feels the mana radiating from her tome, it was no doubt, she is a light mage.

If she were to direct that magic towards himself, the pain would be unbearable and damaging, even with his dragon-skin.

But something else was making the situation tense for Grima.

It was the same feeling he had when he first noticed the battle and with the battle now over, it makes the whole situation quite perplexing.

How did he not notice this? Was Rafiel's Galdrar dulling his senses? Also that girl, something about her was odd. Too odd.

If Grima wanted answers to those questions, he would need to wait as Rafiel was the first to speak.

"Hello I'm Rafiel, would this little bird be yours?" Rafiel asked.

"Oh. Yune. That's where you flew off too." The mage admonished. "You shouldn't wander off like that."

"It's quite alright, she is rather welcoming company." Rafiel said.

Grima is now convinced that Rafiel has some sort of way with communicating with other birds. And this conviction has nothing to do with his bird-like appendages.

"Tell me young Beorc, I was guided here by a voice, was it yours?" Rafiel asked bluntly.

A bit on the nose, but Grima is also convinced that gentle Rafiel didn't have a single lying bone on him.

"No, but I too have heard a voice guiding me here." The light mage answered truthfully. "Someone or something may want us to meet here."

But before Grima could inquire on what the mage meant the male spoke first

"You're a Laguz. One of the Heron tribe and one of royal blood by your white wings."

"That is correct young beorc." Rafiel nodded.

"Are you by chance related to Prince Reyson?" The Beorc asked.

"You know of my younger brother?" Rafiel asked as he stood from his seat.

"Yes, Reyson and I served in the same company. And as far as I know, still alive with your father and his sister Leanne." The young beorc said. "Unless something happened they would be living in Gallia, under the protection of the beast tribe."

"Oh goddess! My father and sweet Leanne as well." Rafiel gasped out as tears begin to fall. "I'm not alone . . . oh goddess. I'm not alone . . . not anymore."

Before Rafiel got the chance to collapse, Grima immediately moved to support him by letting him lean on his shoulder.

Simultaneously, Nailah and Volug returned into their humanoid forms to also assist him but stopped themselves when they saw Grima handling it.

Taking notice of the two wolves Laguz, the maiden awkwardly continued the introductions.

"Uhm. And you three are?"

"I'm Queen Nailah of Hatari; this here is my vassal Volug." Nailah then pointed at Grima still supporting Rafiel. "And that is Grima a traveling mage."

Nodding her head the female began to introduce themselves.

"I'm Micaiah and this is my friend Sothe."

Grima tuned out their conversation after the newcomers introduced themselves as he focused on calming down the distressed Heron.

"Rafiel. Rafiel!" Grima quietly asked. "Do you need to sit back down? I understand if you need a breather or two."

"No, No, I'm quite alright. Better actually." Rafiel said as he regained some of his composure. "This news brings me much joy. My . . . beloved family."

Taking one last sniff Rafiel began to stand on his own power.

"Thank you Grima." Rafiel said quietly only letting the two hear his words. "You truly are a kind soul."

Grima nodded his head as Rafiel returned to the conversation after Nailah talked about Hatari with the two beorcs.

Rafiel began to talk about the massacre of his people that he alluded to earlier and his great debt he owed to Nailah. But just as he finished said wolf interrupted his dialogue.

"You talk too much Rafiel." Nailah bluntly said. "What is the quickest route to Gallia you two?

But Sothe shook his head.

"A group of Laguz traveling through Daein in this political climate is too dangerous."

"It would take longer but we could escort you till Crimea." Sothe offered.

"That would be very kind of you." Grima said. Entering the conversation for the first time. "But I have to ask; why to Crimea."

"Entering Gallia by yourselves is nearly impossible. But in Crimea a man resides there who can get you in." Sothe began to elaborate. "That man is Ike; he can get in contact with King Caineghis and his advisors. He can; with no doubt get you inside Gallia."

"Yes the great Lord Ike, hero of the Crimean Liberation, leader of the Greil Mercenaries, and father of Sothe's children. . ." Micaiah sarcastically said with a roll of her eyes.

"That is very grateful of you." Grima purposefully ignoring the last remark. "Lead the way."

It was Micaiah who took lead as they began to leave the ruins. Grima noticed they passed several bodies of large lions, cats and presumably Laguz in their humanoid forms. When he made a glance towards the still alive Laguz he noticed Rafiel had a sad look on him at the sight of the bodies, Nailah had an 'I told you so look' while Volug had his ever present blank face to him.

When they finally reached outside, the sun was at the early stages of setting and besides the entrance of the ruin they were completely surrounded by the high dunes of the desert.

Ignoring the miles of sand they were briefly introduced to Micaiah's little group; the Dawn Brigade.

Deciding it was better to head towards home base than continue to trek deep into the unforgiving desert the group set out.

After confirming Rafiel was doing alright now they were out in the desert. Grima decided to find Micaiah to ask some questions.

Grima found Micaiah conversing with Sothe at the head of the traveling group. Whatever they were discussing was irrelevant to him but he swore he heard something about reverence to blue haired mercenaries.

Deciding to take the quick and somewhat impolite route; Grima made his presence known to the two.

"Excuse me, Micaiah, Sothe. Is it alright if I ask you a couple of questions?" Grima asked.

"That would be alright Grima. So long as we talk as we walk." Micaiah gladly said as it seems she was glad she could get out of the previous conversation. And judging by Sothe's roll of his eyes, he was too.

"You earlier referred to your group as a 'brigade'? Does that mean you're soldiers in a military formation?" Grima asked.

It seems the specific question took the two by surprise as it took them a few seconds to fully comprehend his question.

"Not exactly." Sothe answered. "We're not soldiers since we don't operate under any 'official' means. We're Freedom fighters."

"Freedom fighters?" Grima said out-loud. "I apologize for my ignorance, but who exactly are you fighting against?"

"We fight against the injustices committed by the Begnion Occupational Army. "Micaiah said with a fiery passion in her eyes that surprised even Robin. "The Occupation has no consideration for the culture or the people. Every day the masses suffer through cruel and humiliating acts as if they were King Ashnard himself. So the only way to truly free the people of Daein from today's brutality; we the Dawn Brigade, strive to reassert Daein's freedom and independence."

"Ashnard? What does the previous king have to do with today's sufferings?" Grima sincerely asked.

"The previous king, 'Mad' King Ashnard, persecuted a very bloody war three years ago against the rest of the continent." Sothe began. "It was only after an Alliance of Laguz and Beorc led by General Ike was he finally killed and his reign of terror put to an end."

Grima took note of the annoyed look Micaiah gave Sothe when he, once again, mentioned the name Ike, but Sothe gave no indication of responding to it.

"And since then, Begnion has ruled this country with an iron fist." Getting nods approval from the two, Grima continued his thinking monologue. "So the Dawn Brigade strives to fight Begnion in the name of its people."

Grima brought his right hand over his mouth to hide a growing smirk of approval as he contemplated over everything they said.

"And what exactly brought your group to the Desert of Death?" Grima asked.

It seems they were hesitant to fully answer his question as the two looked to each other to silently ask each other on what to say.

Noticing the silent affirmation from Sothe; Micaiah returned her look to Grima.

"Because we heard a rumor that King Ashnard's orphaned son is at that desert." Micaiah plainly said.

* * *

Sometime later the group reached where Micaiah set up their camp, a small collection of dilapidated buildings that straddles a large formation of rock which blocks most of the wind. After confirming where the Laguz would be staying for the time being, Grima decided to visit the merchants for any useful tomes.

After some time, Grima was able to locate where the merchants have set themselves up in. Upon entering the make-shift shop he was immediately set upon by a black haired beauty wearing a pink scarf over her head.

"Oh hello darling, who might you be?"

"Ah. Watch out Grima she's one of 'those' merchants." Robin internally warned.

It's not hard to understand where Robin is coming from as the two of them have experience with merchants using this particular 'strategy'.

Putting on his best charming smile Grima responded.

"Just a traveling mage miss . . . ?" Stretching out his right hand in greeting.

"Aimee." Reciprocating his handshake

"Grima. Are you the owner of this establishment?" Grima asks as he took a good look of the goods up for sale.

"I am one of the merchants in this convoy." She specifies.

"Well it seems I met the right person."

"Oh?" She said with a raised eyebrow of amusement.

"Yes, you seem to be the most business savvy amongst the merchants." Grima complimented. "Among other things."

"Oh do tell."

"Sadly I'm somewhat pressed for time so I must make my business here quick." Grima said as he reached into his coin sack and removed some blank gold coins. "What can I get with 10 of these?"

"Oh my! Where did you find these rarities?" She asked in shock as she held one in examination.

"I got these during my travels." He mysteriously said. "So how much do you think I could get with this?"

"Hmmm, they are worth about 10000G." She said.

"Alright then. Do you have any tomes and maps on the continent?"

"Tellius?" Bring her fist to her mouth in thought. "No, but I could special order them?"

"That would be nice. Also what kind of tomes do you have in stock?"

"Your usual Wind, Fire and Thunder tomes. But I do have a stock of Elthunder." She listed of the top of her head.

"How about any dark tomes?" Grima asked.

"You're a dark mage?" She asked surprised.

"Not exactly a secret." Grima said as if it wasn't a big deal.

"You're the first dark mage I've met." She said with a critical eye. "And to answer your question, no, we don't carry those in stock."

"I thought so. I was told dark mages were a rarity here." Grima said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Throw in some vulenaries and forget about the tomes. I've got better ones anyway."

"Alright then." Taking out 8 vulenaries and pocketing the 10 gold coins. "I'll be sure to order your Atlas and get it to you as soon as possible, sweetie."

"Thank you, Aimee." His confident smile returning to his face as he place his vulenaries in his pocket.

Retuning back to where he left the Laguz; Grima immediately sought out Rafiel.

"Rafiel, are you doing better?"

"Oh Grima, Yes, I'm doing quite fine now." The Heron smiled, happy to see him back.

"That's great." Pausing as he looked to Nailah and Volug to check if they were listening. "I would like to notify you all I will ask Micaiah if I can join the Dawn Brigade for any upcoming battles."

"You are?" Rafiel asked in a surprised tone.

"Yes, their story and conviction about saving the people of Daein moved me enough that I wish to help them see their dream realized." He said.

In an approving nod Nailah spoke. "I like that attitude Grima, so when you do that, take Volug as well." She said bluntly.

"Excuse me?" He said confusion in his tone.

"What she means Grima." Rafiel interrupted. "While you were gone, Nailah and I were discussing ways to help Micaiah and we agreed to send Volug as additional protection. And we were hoping you would join him."

"I see." A small smile of amusement creeping up Grima's face.

It was at that moment did a certain silver haired maiden made her appearance known.

"Hello are you . . . oh you're all here." Striding up to the group. "I just came to inform you all we'll be returning to the desert to resume our search for the orphaned heir."

"Micaiah." Catching said mage's attention Grima continued. "We'll like to come with you to help."

"What?" Micaiah said in disbelief. "But don't you-"

But before Micaiah could speak her mind, Nailah interjected.

"I understand you don't want to be seen in the company of a Laguz. But we cannot just sit on our paws, so to speak, while those who stuck their necks out for us are in the line of fire."

"I appreciate the thought, but . . ." Micaiah trailed off. Still anxious with the whole situation.

"No? Fine. Sorry to be a bother." The wolf queen bluntly said.

Taken aback by the sudden turn around, Grima took action to rescue the discussion.

"Micaiah, I understand if you want us far from harm's way, but when you spoke earlier about the plight of the people, I saw something in your eyes." Making sure he had her full attention Grima continued. "I'm not very good with these kinds of words but the fiery passion you spoke in was quite moving. The sheer confidence you spoke in made it sound as it was a matter of when not if. So forgive me for wanting to help by any means."

"No, don't apologize!" She flustered. "I would greatly appreciate your help."

It was at that moment that Volug came up to Nailah and spoke to her. Grima didn't understand what he was saying as he was speaking in Ancient. But the words seemed to amuse Nailah.

"Good thinking Volug." She proudly said.

With a raised eyebrow, Grima witnessed Volug transform into his wolf form.

"As you know, we laguz fight only in our shifted forms. However, we can't remain in that state for very long. It is too exhausting." Nailah then pointed to the wolf. "Volug, however, has half shifted. When he does this, he can remain in beast form all day long."

Even though he couldn't understand a single word, Grima realized what Volug was trying to achieve.

"Now a dog wouldn't be too suspicious to travel with, wouldn't it?" Nailah rhetorically asked.

"No it wouldn't be. But likening him to a dog?" Micaiah said.

But it seems it her last comment didn't reach Nailah as she continued to talk on.

"He may not be as friendly to any other canine, but he is housebroken and will serve you well in future battles to come."

"Okay. We'll be meeting at the gate in 5 minutes so be ready to head out by then." Micaiah quickly said as she walked away to get away from the conversation.

Shaking his head, Grima didn't think this would go in that direction but here we are. He took another glance at the Laguz, receiving their good wills he and Volug wolf headed for the entrance to meet up with the rest of the brigade and head back to the desert of death.

* * *

 **A.N Yup. Yup. This could've come out earlier but I procrastinated this chapter hard. This is also a lot longer than I originally envisioned. So have fun with that.**

 **So please review would love to know what you think.**


	3. Chapter 3 Start of a Revolution

**I never envisioned this chapter to be as long as it became. I thought the length of the last chapter was ridiculous. But this just kept getting bigger and it's my entire fault. I swear the next chapter won't be as long.**

* * *

 **Radiant Awakening**

 **Chapter 3 Start of a Revolution**

Deserts.

Why does it always have to be deserts?

No matter the time and the world, it seems he will always be cursed to travel these godforsaken environments. Grima never liked the hot-sands of the Interior of Plegia. The constantly beating sun and the endless wind swept dunes being major turn-offs for him. He was much more comfortable in the borderlands of the North and East as well as the Mediterranean coasts of the West and South.

And the Desert of Death is no different.

Luckily for Grima, his loose fitting clothing is well suited for these harsh environments.

But it seems common-sense was lost to his new companions as he was shocked to learn the Dawn Brigade was traveling with normal tight-fitting clothing that also shown a significant amount of skin in a desert. A couple of them were also wearing their full armor sets. He was glad he was able to convince Micaiah and Sothe to buy everyone cloaks with hoods to protect themselves and extra water flasks.

As much as he loathes deserts, he understands the need to properly prepare when traveling a desert.

There is no telling when a sandstorm could erupt or the length of the long sun dry days. But it seems they were traveling when the sun is covered by veil of sand so it seems they're not completely hopeless.

But that doesn't excuse Nailah and Volug choice of attire. It may seem harmless and he may be ignorant to Laguz biology but sunburn and loss of water due to sweating would be fatal for the both of them.

And with Volug currently in his wolf form; that thick coat of fur would be fatal if they were to go long distances without rest and constant hydration.

But a long distant trek is not what they're currently doing.

It was Volug who detected a large group of Beorc massing not far from where they're at. Seeing no other leads, Micaiah decided to lead the brigade to where the wolves' nose is leading them.

Speaking again about the Dawn Brigade, they're certainly a colorful group of characters. Not to say that's a bad thing. The Brigade takes their position as freedom fighters very seriously to the point that so long as you're not an abusive Begnion soldier, they will give you the benefit of the doubt, unconditionally.

This is what exactly happened when he revealed himself as a dark mage. Instead of any caution or scorn he was met with awed curiosity. Sothe did look with him with some caution, so there is that. But that mostly bleeds into his very protective nature with Micaiah.

But the looks of curiosity from the more curious members of the brigade got too overbearing that he sought some way of escape. At least something to distract himself from those eyes.

That brought him to his current conversation with the blue haired mage that was the only other mage beside Micaiah and himself.

When he first saw Ilyana he was curious why she had a face that looked like she would collapse at any moment. Any attempt of starting a conversation was rebuffed by the fact she refused to respond in any way.

He was about to give up until he heard a faint word of "hungry" escape her lips.

Grima decided to give her a single strip of jerky that Nailah gave to him before he left. Admittedly this wasn't one of his smartest decisions as for all he knew he was feeding a human 'dog' food.

But if she found the taste wanting, she made no indication of that fact as she immediately asked for seconds and then thirds, fourths, fifths and finally sixths as that finally satisfied her.

Her avaricious hunger is ridiculous! Right when the Brigade was meeting up he swore he saw her munching on some foodstuff then.

But it seems him feeding her an impromptu snack did the trick as she thanked him for sharing and instantly partly opened up her life's story.

She seems to be a traveling mage associated with the merchant's convoy and when Micaiah and the Brigade rescued them from imprisonment they pledged to help with the liberation of Daein.

Now Grima was holding out his Arcthunder tome and giving a general overview of its characteristics.

As he spoke Grima noted that with her hunger satiated she was very attentive with what he had to say about Arc-level spells.

She is definitely a curious girl. Her constant hunger is strange enough, but couple in the fact she's an accomplished thunder mage makes her quite bizarre.

In fact, it's his honest opinion that she shouldn't exist as she is now. Her constant hungers imply she has a high energy demand but she's a mage, so where is the demand?

Mages predominantly cast spells through tomes due to its faster cast times and the fact when casting said spell it only requires a small portion of the user's internal reserves. The rest of the necessary mana is sourced through the tome. This allows more spells to be cast for a longer period of time.

Not to say magic overuse doesn't happen. It is in fact quite common thing to happen, especially for apprentices and mages who used a more demanding and complicated spells.

But hunger isn't the normal symptom in magic overuse but exhaustion and body fatigue.

That is to say what Ilyana is going through is magic overuse. It's entirely possible her constant appetite and her being a mage is irrelevant to each other.

But he is still entirely doubtful she could be as potent as a mage with such a high energy demand. It's clear the energy is being used somewhere since it's not being stored anywhere on her body.

It's possible he's looking at this problem the wrong way. The only way to know that is to see her in action with his own eyes.

"This tomes quality is the best I've ever seen." The gluttonous mage complimented. "Where did you get this? I've never seen one so concise and detailed."

"It was a gift from a friend." Grima answered. "I'm doubtful you'll find another one like this here."

It was rather fortuitous that his world's spells were comprehensible in this world. Or maybe any basic spell like Arcthunder is universal no matter where you are, like the basic premise of a sword or spear.

"Tell me are you familiar with this level of magic?" Grima asked.

"Very much so, Arcthunder and Bolting spells were my specialty." She said. "It's a shame those spells are in short supply."

Seeing an opportunity, Grima asked Ilyana. "Interesting, maybe you'll be intre-"

"Hey Grima!" A distant voice yelled from Grima's rear.

The two mages took a look behind them to find a brown haired youth with a sword strapped to his side running up to them; his he was also wearing the hood of the cloak down.

"Hey Grima!" Edward repeated with much a glee. "Is it true you're a dark mage?"

"Yes." Grima answered flatly. "I'm pretty sure I went over this before we headed out."

Edward gave Grima an unabashed smile. "Indeed you did! But I've never met a dark mage before!"

"So I wanted to ask if you can shoot dark lightning out of your hands."

"You know I'm very proficient in other types of magic such as thunder magic." Grima said while pointing at the Arc thunder tome still in his hand.

"Yeah, but this is _dark_." Edward said emphasizing the word dark.

Before Grima could retort he noticed a blond man running up to them. From his bow and quiver of arrows he noticed it was Leonardo running up to him.

"EDWARD!" Leonardo shouted as he ran up to Edward. "What did I say about harassing the new recruit?"

"Oh come on Leo. I know you're curious as well." Edward said.

"That's not the point!" The Bowman admonished. "It's about being courteous and giving him space so he can more easily integrate himself with the rest of us."

"Aww, you don't think I'm annoying? Do you Grima?" The sword man pleaded clearly missing what his friend was saying.

"Over bearing, if I was being nice." Ilyana softly commented.

"See. I'm perfectly alright." Edward crossing his arms in triumph.

"That's not a compliment." The blond archer said while rubbing the top of his eyebrows as if he had a mild headache. "That wasn't Grima's answer either."

"Well Grima looks like the scholarly type so I was just wanted to give him the chance to express that knowledge." Edward said in a confident tone.

Grima had to admit that was rather observant of him to notice. He does like going off in tangents about topics he's invested himself in. Dark Magic being an obvious one.

"Then you should let him and not distract him with stupid questions." The thunder sage scolded.

"But dark thunder magic isn't stupid!" Edward pleads.

"Well well, what are you kiddies doing here?" A new voice interjected.

Looking to their left side they saw an older man bearing brown facial hair speak to him. From what Grima remembers he's the eldest one of the Brigade and usually wields axes.

"Trying to get Edward to stop pestering the new guy." Leonardo said exasperatedly.

"Edward." The older man said sternly as if he was speaking to a child.

"Not you too Nolan." Edward said defeated. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable Grima."

"No worries Edward, it's not everyday someone is curious with my work as a dark mage." Grima said willing to give the poor kid a bone.

"And to answer your question, there is some normal spells when I use them give a 'dark' tint to it; like Nosferatu for example."

"Isn't Nosferatu a light magic spell?" Ilyana questioned.

"Not when I use it." He said giving off a small teasing smile.

Seems everyone caught on what he meant as Nolan gave off a humorous chuckle as Edward took it as instant gratification, much to Leonardo's slight annoyance.

"I don't want to ruin your good time but your needed elsewhere." A voice interjected in Grima's head.

Silently agreeing, Grima took the moment to extricate himself from his current company. Excusing himself to Ilyana he returned his Arc thunder tome into his coat as the other 3 were too busy with their own conversation to notice his departure.

As Grima left towards where Volug was leading the Brigade, the internal voice continued.

"Glad to see you're an effortless social butterfly." Robin teased

"It's necessary to seamlessly ingratiate myself into their group as quickly as possible so they can look to me for aid. If it requires me to play their games, so be it." Grima blankly responds.

"You know when you put it like that it sucks out all the humor." Robin notes.

"That's the point." The dragon smiled inwardly.

"I'm also sure you also noticed this group has similarities to the Shepherds." Grima adds.

"Yes." Robin agrees. "It seems a group with a colorful cast is also a universal constant no matter the universe."

"Our leader also has traits similar to Chrom." Robin added almost thoughtlessly. "Selfless to a fault, brash and an idealist."

"You got all of that from our limited interactions with her?" Grima questioned.

"You can't tell me you don't get that feeling from her." His ghost retorted.

"To be honest, I don't know what I feel about her." Grima cautioned. "It's nothing nefarious and it has nothing to do with the fact she's a light mage or a least I don't think. But I feel like there is something more about her."

"You don't think she's a lost princess?" Robin said sarcastically.

"You jest, but that isn't outside the realm of possibilities given our shared experiences." Grima said.

"Well speaking of the princess."

Just as Robin said that the backs of Micaiah, Sothe and Volug came into view. Seeing as this line of questioning is over, he hurried up to their sides.

As he got closer to them he noticed Volug stop his tracks to find Grima behind him. The two Beorc noticed their guide dog stop and turn and as they too notice him come up.

Grima may have joked earlier about having ulterior motives when socializing with the other members of the Dawn Brigade. But what he is about to do now isn't going to be done out of generosity.

"Grima. What brings you here?" The ashen haired maiden asked.

"Just wanted to be with the leader when we first have contact with who ever." Grima said.

Taking a glance at Sothe he noticed he was straighter in his posture. Seems not everyone is hunky-dory with his presence. But to fair he's always protective with the girl, he noticed.

"Hopefully whoever they are, they're friendly." Micaiah said out-loud.

"I doubt that." Grima said taking her by surprise. "You feel it too Volug? All that ill-intent?"

All he got from the wolf was a growl but somehow he interpreted it as an affirmation.

"Exactly. Blood will be spilled today, best to be prepared for it." Grima said regretfully, hopefully they picked up on that.

"You talk as if you're used to war." Sothe accused.

'When you travel as far as I have, you experience many things; war and death is a sad reality." Grima said without missing a beat.

"If the people we're travelling to intend to do us harm, wouldn't it be prudent to avoid them." Micaiah said getting the conversation back at hand.

"We don't know that for sure until we look with our own eyes." Grima said. "For all we know that is the Prince you're looking for."

"Alright then. We'll have to keep moving then." Micaiah said firmly. "How much further?"

"Woof."

"We just need to crest a few more dunes before we reach them." Grima answered with hope that is what Volug said.

"We should be more cautious in our approach." Sothe warned.

"I doubt that would be necessary." Grima thought out loud much to everyone's surprise as he continued his thought process. "The wind is buffeting any sound we'll make so they'll see us before they'll hear us. But judging by the concentration of people they didn't post any sentries outward, so long as we keep behind a dune they'll never know we're coming."

"That's quite the observation you made." Sothe half complimented half accused.

"Well I have to be observant if wanted to be a competent tactician." Grima said as they crested over a sand dune.

"You're a tactician?" Micaiah asked surprised.

"As Sothe said I'm quite good at making these types of observations and I've read many books on tactics and strategy." Grima then remembered an additional detail. "I did show you my small collection of tomes which included my tactics and strategy tomes, remember?"

From what he remembered they we're more in awe about the amount of tome size pockets the coat had than the contents of the tomes themselves.

This fact seemed to embarrass the two but Micaiah's reaction was more pronounced.

"I'm sorry we were distracted by other things." She embarrassingly admitted.

"Distracted by how amazing my coat is. Thank you very much." Robin said with such pride in his voice.

"It's alright." Ignoring the disembodied voice. "I should've been more explicit about my skills."

"Well is there something you can't do? Micaiah said to lighten the mood.

"Well, you shouldn't put me in cooking duty." Grima said honestly.

* * *

After walking for another 15 minutes Grima found himself lying prone near the top of the dune peering over at an ongoing battle. A large platoon of red soldiers is currently assaulting some ruins. The defenders seem to have taken defensive positions around an entrance that leads inside some sort of cave. The defenders are obviously quite skilled judging by the fact how well they're able to keep the attackers at bay but there is so much 3 skilled soldiers could do before they're overwhelmed.

"Well, whoever they are; they sure got themselves in quite the bind." Grima openly comments to his fellow companions.

"Begnion soldiers." Sothe openly spat out from Grima's left. "What could they be doing in the Desert of Death."

"Most likely the same reasons you're here." Grima supplied as he didn't take his eyes out of the battle and its surroundings.

"You don't think the Prince is there?" Micaiah gasped out.

"We don't know that for certain." Taking a moment to compose himself Grima continued. "What I do know is that we need a plan of attack."

"That would take too much time when they-" Sothe pointed to defenders for emphasis. "Need our help now."

"It would only take long if you keep this stalling up." Grima said firmly not backing down.

Grima needed to do this. He needed to show how indispensable his skills would be for the group and for the Liberation movement as a whole. If he were to help this world as a whole, he needed this to be his foot in the door.

As he said earlier, he's not doing this for charity.

Luckily for Grima, Micaiah swiftly intervened.

"Sothe. I would like to hear him out."

Sothe took a long hard look to Micaiah to his left. Or at least what Grima assumed was a hard look as he could only see the back of Sothe's head.

But after a moment Sothe returned his look to Grima on his right in acquiescence to his charge's request.

Returning his gaze back to the battle, Grima began his plan.

"Take a look at the large concentration of soldiers at the base of the stairs to the right." Confirming he had their undivided attention Grima continued. "Judging by the amount of bodies they dedicated there, one can assume that is where their commander is."

"So that's where we attack." Sothe said rather impatiently.

Grima only shook his head. "You'll be a fool to attack your enemy where he's strongest, even if they deserve it. No we'll attack them where they are weakest."

"The enemy has left the stairs to their left completely open. We'll use that to get in close to their undermanned left flank and move to relieve the defenders in one fell stroke. Concurrently we should send some our forces to occupy the empty raised balcony that separates the two stairs to harass the enemy commander's own position in the right with long range attacks to prevent him from effectively mounting a counterattack."

"Seems you're a more competent tactician than I thought." Micaiah complimented.

"Strategos." Grima said.

"Uhh. Excuse me?" She questioned.

"Strategos would be the more accurate and preferred title." He explained.

"Okaaaay." Micaiah slowly said a bit unsure what to say.

"I'll stick with tactician." Sothe said much to Grima's annoyance. "I was never one for formal titles."

"Regardless, we should keep a watchful eye for our own flank for any reinforcements or counterattacks which seek to exploit our small numbers." Grima said hoping to steer the conversation back to the problem at hand.

"Are you saying there's a possibility that there are more Begnion soldiers other than the ones we see here? Micaiah asked.

"It's possible they sent a small contingent of soldiers around whatever this is to find a second entrance or cut off any possible escape tunnel." Grima speculated. "That is at least what I'll do in this situation but given how arrogant the enemy commander is maybe . . ."

Trailing off Grima thought in his head then continued.

"No, it's best to prepare for such an inevitably. Would this plan suffice, Micaiah?"

"Yes let's inform everyone." She said her resolute tone returning as she slid down the dune with Sothe close behind to the rest of the Dawn Brigade waiting patiently at its bottom.

Taking one look back at the battlefield, Grima turned downward to slowly slide down the dune to catch up with his leader.

"That's a very well thought out plan their, Grima." His mental passenger complimented with a hint of amused sarcasm.

"Thank you." Grima sassily shot back. "Thought it up all by myself."

"Smartass." Robin said. "Do I need to remind you that I'm quite the accomplished tactician myself?"

"And that is why you'll be the one to give the in-battle commands." Grima calmly said.

"Come again?" The voice asked rather dumbfounded with what he heard.

"I want you to take command of this battle." Grima repeated as he obliged Robin's request.

"I heard you the first time." Robin said still a bit dazed with what's happening now. "I need to ask why you would ask that."

"Hmm. I thought you could read my inner thoughts? Seems that's not exactly the case." Grima mulled over this line of thought.

"Grima! Answer the question!" Robin practically shouted in Grima's head.

Just as this was happening, Grima just reached the bottom of the dune where the rest of the Brigade was listening to Micaiah going over what they earlier saw and the general plan of attack. Even though everything from the observations to the plan was _his_ own words, Grima practically let Micaiah take all the credit. If Grima was a more prideful man he wouldn't have taken this slight laying down.

But he was above all a realist and he knew people. He understood quite clearly that even though he was trusted to fight with them, he wasn't exactly trusted to lead them. But they left their trust to Micaiah to lead them.

Even though he knew for a fact that he is the more competent commander and therefore should command in battles, he could not and would not force them to know that fact. They must collectively learn on their own terms.

But that doesn't mean he couldn't nudge them to the _right_ conclusion.

Sighing inwardly, Grima tuned out the outside world to have a chat with his spiritual freeloader.

"You're right that I'm competent enough to give orders and wouldn't exactly need your help." Grima continued choosing his words carefully. "But the reason I think you should give the battle orders is because your style of extreme mitigation of friendly fatalities would be a better fit than to my own style."

"Really?" Robin said questionably said.

"Really. Just as you correctly stated earlier, Micaiah has similar traits to Chrom and one of those traits is the intolerable notion of 'acceptable casualties' in warfare. This is especially pronounced with her 'friends'." Grima said in a professional tone. "To speak frankly she cares too much about the well-being of her fellow soldiers."

"I'm surprised you were able to read that from her." Robin complimented.

"Don't tell me you don't get that feeling from her." Grima said repeating Robin's earlier words.

"Yeah, all your points do make sense." Robin said still unsure in his decision.

"Well, make your choice soon because it seems to be our time to shine." Grima quickly said.

"Excuse me. What?" Robin confusedly said.

It seems while Grima was conversing with his inner conscious, Micaiah just finished her speech and turned to Grima.

"But I have to give where credit is due. Grima here was the one who made the initial observations and plan." Taking a pause to take in a breath, she continued. "So I believe it would be the best if Grima give out orders for this battle."

"Are you sure that would be wise, Micaiah?" Surprisingly it wasn't Sothe who said that but Nolan.

Taking a peek to Sothe he noticed that he was surprisingly calm with her delegating powers to him. Almost like he either accepted his skills or trusted Micaiah to make the best choice. Most likely the latter.

"Yes, I have trust that Grima would do his utmost to not only lead us to the best of his abilities but also to protect us." She said with that same tone of self-assurance.

Grima should've been flattered by that vote of confidence as the brigade nodded in acceptance. In fact his outward appearance implies just that fact.

But internally he was critically reading between the lines of her little speech. He couldn't make sense of it and it made him mildly concerned.

But he reigned it all in to focus on the problem at hand.

"So?" He asked spirit Robin. "What do you say?"

"You planned this to make sure I gave the 'right' answer, didn't you?" Robin said accusingly.

"Guilty." Grima thought without shame.

"Yeah that's what I thought." Robin sighed as he accepted the obvious. "So relay these orders."

"Thank you Micaiah. I won't let you down." Grima said out loud.

Immediately changing to a more serious tone he took out his personal tome Truth and began walking with the brigade in tow issuing his commands.

"Alright. We better start moving before they start to get overwhelmed. We need to move stealthily to the base of the left stairs by taking full advantage of the sand storm. Volug, Edward and Sothe are our vanguard and would move to immediately relieve the defenders. While . . .

* * *

Today was a good day for Wystan.

Sure he was in this blasted desert with the heat, the wind and the god awful sand as far as the eyes could see annoy him to no end.

But he is sure he just hit the proverbial gold mine.

Judging by reports from his vanguard, they encountered someone wearing armor similar to that of a former General of Daein. If these reports are accurate and combine them with the rumors about a certain prince then one can easily assume he is currently fighting this prince's personal guard.

And from the reports they can be described as such. Already they cut down many of his men down at the entrance of their compound.

But there is too few of them and many of us. Eventually they will succumb to us just like the rest of this forsaken country.

"Lieutenant Wiles." Wystan yelled to get the attention of the mage.

"Yes commander." The Lieutenant dutifully responded.

"I want you to get your mages up front to-"

But before Wystan could finish his orders a blast of dark energy hit the poor lieutenant on his side immediately downing him. Immediately after this a hail of arrows and magic began to pour onto the commander's position.

"Take cover!" A soldier yelled as the rest of them began to scramble for cover.

Taking a look at the direction where they were being fired upon. Wystan noticed several figures up on a balcony overlooking his position.

"Archers! Mages! Return fire" Wystan yelled as he too put his fire tome to work to give these interlopers a taste of their own venom.

But he could only scowl as he noticed their return fire were ineffective in nearly every way. The shots missed by a wide range by either going over their heads or falling short. To make matters worse his enemies initial volley was much more effective than he first presumed as all the bodies lying on the ground were his own archers or mages thus greatly reducing his retaliatory attack.

"Commander! Commander Wystan!" A panicked soldier yelled running through the hailstorm of arrows and magic to meet up with him.

"What is it private?"

"Terrible news! Enemy Reinforcements arrived!" The poor soldier urgently said.

"I know that Private!" He yelled fuming at what he was told. "As you can see we are very aware of that fact!"

"Not them, sir." The soldier his nervousness now doubled after being scolded for his poor choice of words. "The-the soldiers at the entrance got reinforcements and completely repelled our attack. I-I think they attacked from our left flank."

Wystan openly growled. That meant what little men he committed to his left were annihilated which also explains how they got in so close. Still he could still salvage this. All he needs to do is get rid of those blasted mages on that balcony.

"REEVES!" Get your ass over here!" Even though his ranged attackers took a beating his regular footmen were left relatively unharmed from the attack.

Soon a spearman ran up to the commander. "What is it, sir?"

"I want you to take your footmen and head towards the leftward stairs and attack those on the balcony at their backs while I'll stay here with what's left of my bowmen and mages and draw their fire." He quickly ordered.

"Yes sir." Reeves immediately said and headed out with his men.

"As for you private." Turning his attention to the nervous soldier. "Take the rest of the footmen back to the front and keep up the pressure there."

Yes this will do. He still held the raw numbers advantage. He just needs to be patient until everything falls into place.

* * *

Grima gave of a small predatory smile at what he saw. He and Robin are playing whoever the enemy commander is like a fiddle.

The surprise attack by Micaiah, Ilyana, Leonardo and himself had devastated their enemies own capacity of counterattack. And now the enemy is splitting of their forces in three.

It seems whoever is leading them is assured of their own victory and by that they failed to realize how terrible of a move this was. But he isn't here to critique them.

Receiving Robin's orders, Grima turned to Micaiah to his left. Her ever present bodyguard wasn't here to babysit her as Robin found it more appropriate to have him in the vanguard to relieve the defenders, much to his dismay.

"Micaiah! The enemy is sending footmen to attack our flank and to attack the entrance once again." He quickly said.

She frowned at what she was told. Seems she was hoping the enemy would realize of their disadvantageous position and fallback. Grima didn't have the same sentiment as he fully expected them to stand and fight.

"So what's the plan?" She finally asked.

"We just need to repulse this counterattack and once that's done we launch our own attack to finish this battle." He confidently said. "So I want to take our rear-guard to meet those heading towards us."

"You want to lead directly? Isn't that dangerous for a tactician?" She said with concern.

"It's only right that I do some of the heavy-lifting." He said as he pulled out his Levin sword for added emphasis. "When we repulse the attacks send a signal to launch the general attack."

"What's the signal?" She asked a bit unsure but still on board with the plan.

"You're a light mage." He said playfully, hoping some light humor would cheer her up a bit. "Make something bright and obvious."

This seemed to work as she gave a small smile when she nodded her head in understanding. But this disappeared as a face of pure focus replaced it.

"Edward! Send word to Sothe: On my signal. Attack." She said with no break in her composure.

But Grima didn't have time to appreciate this as he gone by the time she finished her order. Jumping down from the balcony ready to do his part.

"Aran! Meg! Laura! Get over here." He yelled loudly.

Soon all three of the rear-guard came running in, already sweating and grimed up from an earlier fight when Grima's hunch of reinforcements came true, luckily they were prepared for it and were swiftly dealt with.

"An enemy attack is coming for us. Aran, Meg you take point. I'll take middle and cover your rears. Laura stay behind me and do what's necessary." He said swiftly. "Understand?"

Receiving their nods, they immediately set out.

* * *

Damn. Damn. Damn. DAMN!

Those incompetent fools! Do these so called soldiers know how to stand and fight?

Firing another shot from his fire tome in front him. Wystan witnessed his soldiers retreat from the entrance of the compound chased by some large wolf.

These people had the aid of some sub-human scum and to add insult to injury, his own men were running from it!

He was also sure some inhuman sorcery was also involved as some bright light preceded his men running with their tails in between their legs.

Incompetent! The lot of them! If they followed his plans things wouldn't have gone the way it did.

Just as he was to continue to curse his luck on everyone but himself, he suddenly felt some force hit his side sending excruciating pain throughout his whole body and collapsing him onto his back.

He was an experienced mage and knew immediately as he laid there that he was hit by some sort of magical force. It felt like his insides were on fire but this wasn't a trait of fire magic or any of the other Anima magics. Even though he was vaguely aware Light magic he knew that it too wasn't the culprit. This felt more sinister.

Hoping to find the culprit he used what little energy to turn his head to the direction the bolt came from.

He saw man wearing a strange black coat with strange markings wielding both a purple tome and a strange yellowish sword with the blade shaped in a zig-zag pattern.

Was he his undoing?

With his slowly fading consciousness he didn't even realize this figure was already looking down on him with his cold analytical eyes.

With most feelings, lost to him from the neck down he attempted to gasp out any last words.

"You . . . . didn't . . . . . couldn't . . ."

He wanted to scream at him. Curse him for his failures. He wanted him to know that whatever he'll do from now on was useless. And most of all he wanted to ask how they easily bested him.

But he couldn't. All he could do was stare and listen as this strange mage began to speak.

"Your mistake was concentrating your forces in one spot which signaled your location, making you so easy to target."

He spoke frankly as if he knew what he wanted to know.

And it was then that Commander Wystan Bole was no more, this was his first command position.

* * *

Surveying the battlefield Grima noticed most the Brigade with him. Many of them were dirty from the battle but beyond some signs of exhaustion they were still ready for another bout of fighting.

Grima was sure the battle was over today. Taking one last glance at the now deceased enemy commander he went off to find their only healer.

Finding her looking over Meg with Aran waiting patiently to the side he called out to her.

"Laura. How's Meg? Nothing too serious I hope?"

In fact he was sure that besides a few new dents in their armor, nothing came close to hurting them. But it would be nice to send a nice gesture that he cared.

"No. Nothing serious." She said already confirming what he knew. "It was thanks to your magic that we were able come out of this unscathed."

"Now, now I shouldn't get all the credit. It was Aran here who took out that swordsman when I was too busy supporting Meg." It was true, he let one of them slip too far when he was too busy listening to Robin.

But before he could shoot off a lightning bolt from his Levin Sword he noticed Aran already moving to protect Laura. From what he understood, Aran was once a soldier for Begnion until he switched sides at the behest of Laura who was a childhood friend.

It was nothing but a sweet story and could already tell where this relationship would be going.

But that's irrelevant.

"Well when you're done could you take a look at the rest of the Brigade just in case?' Taking her nod as an affirmative he continued. "Also can you take a closer look with Edward? I noticed he didn't properly parry a hit earlier so I was concerned he took more damage than he's showing."

"I'll get right on it." She said seriously. Immediately taking her leave to care for her new patients.

"As for the two of you, send word to everyone to keep up their guard." He said no doubt with the same tone he used during the battle. "It's possible there is more than one Begnion search party combing through these deserts."

Taking their leave, Grima decided this would be the best time to find his silver-haired leader. Judging by the fact she and Sothe wasn't here with the rest of her brigade, he deduced they were formally meeting whoever they just saved.

Just as Grima reached to bottom of the stairs, Robin cut in.

"That went well."

"Indeed. No casualties. Your reputation precedes you Robin." Grima calmly said.

"Now you're just being an asshole." Robin snorted out.

A vocal non-committal grunt was all what Grima gave as he ascended the stairs making sure to avoid the bodies of the Begnion soldiers.

"You know." Robin continuing the conversation. "I'm pretty sure Edward is competent enough to properly parry attacks to prevent injury."

"Rather observant of you my friend." Grima said sounding vague and stupid.

"Fine, I'll just ask." Clearly unamused with his little game. "Why did you sick Laura to Edward?"

Grima was rather disappointed he wouldn't play along. At least got some reaction out of him.

"If you must know, I just wanted to make sure he doesn't talk to me until after I meet with Micaiah."

"That necessary?"

"I certainly thought so." He responded

Just as he got to the top of the stairs he noticed a commotion coming from a group of people outside the entrance to the compound.

He was able to recognize the familiar attire of Sothe and Micaiah and the four new individuals with their green wyvern. Of the four individuals it was clear three of them were the fighters protecting the entrance while the fourth was a non-combatant.

One fighter was an older looking man who carried a spear and heavy shield and was fitted with white heavy armor that was stained with blood and littered with pot marks. Another was a serious looking blue haired young man but still looking older than Sothe. Judging from his thin sword still sheathed to his side and his light clothing he was an agile myrmidon. The last fighter was clearly a female wyvern rider by the fact she was rather familiar with the sweet spots for this particular wyvern. She had striking red hair and armor of the same prominent color, sadly her dragon was green, such a missed opportunity.

But what got his attention was a short hunch-backed fellow in the middle of everyone simply talking with himself, loudly as well.

"What an odd character." Robin commented. "Hopefully he's not completely out of it."

"Knowing our luck, I doubt that very much." He said rather defeatedly.

Continuing to make his way to the group, he was able to pick up some of the words the now ugly man said. None of it made any sense and Grima consciously chose to ignore it.

As he got closer it seems his presence was being noticed as everyone except for Sothe and Micaiah who had their backs to him, was looking at him curiously.

Wondering what they were looking at, it was Micaiah who turned around first.

"Oh Grima, how is everyone fairing?" She said making her first priority known.

"Other than a few cuts and new dents in their armor? They'll live." He shrugged as if it was not a big deal, Micaiah smiled slightly at his antics.

"That's good to hear." She absently said only to realize a grievous error. "Oh and Grima these are the people we saved. They seem to be old comrades Sothe fought with."

"Truly? Well it's a good thing I put you in the vanguard then? Huh Sothe." He said with only a bit of smug.

"It seems so." Sothe said neutrally. Not letting himself take his bait. "Grima this hulking man is General Tauroneo."

The Old man brusquely nodded his head in greeting taking great care to ignore Sothe's words.

"And these two are Zihark and Jill." Sending their greetings of hello, Sothe continued. "I fought with each one of them years ago with General Ike."

Grima made a quick glance to Micaiah as he noticed a small twitch with her left eyebrow. If he didn't know any better he would've asked her if something was wrong. Luckily he knew better and ignored it.

"And he is . . .?" Giving an obvious look to the hunch-backed man to make sure everyone understood who he was talking about.

"I don't know him." Sothe simply said.

"Of course." He replied.

"His name is Izuka the Prince's close advisor." The old general supplied. "Please forgive his 'eccentric' behavior. If it was not for him we would never have found the lost Prince."

"So the prince is here." Grima said out-loud. Glad to know his hunch is right.

"Oh, this is Grima." Sothe said as he finally introduced him to everyone. "He is the Tactician that helped us save you guys."

It seems Sothe's little endorsement won him some appraising looks from the newcomers especially from the old man.

But for Grima he was more annoyed by what Sothe said. Or what he failed to say.

"Strategos." He reminded the navel exhibitionist.

"Like I said, I'm not one for formal titles." Sothe reminding him. "Oh he's also a dark mage who is also skilled with a sword."

He wouldn't say he is anywhere near skilled in using the Levin Sword as a sword. He mostly used it to shoot some lightning to surprise his foes.

But if that constitutes as skilled he'll take the compliment as that won him even more appraisal from the non-magical individuals.

Especially from Tauroneo as he brought his hand to massage his mustache.

"You're a dark mage, yes?" The old General asked. When he got Grima's nod of confirmation he continued. "Interesting, you're the second dark mage I met recently."

The shock from his revelation was palpable. So much that it wasn't Grima who spoke first but Sothe.

"You know another Dark mage, Tauroneo?"

"Yes, in fact he's the Pr-"But before Tauroneo could finish his sentence a very loud noise stopped him in his tracks as he and everyone else turned to the source of noise.

"EUREAKA! BRILLIANT!" The loud, almost screeching noise came from Izuka as he finally left his little world for reality as he quickly made his way to Micaiah, but he still blabbered on.

"You must meet the Prince immediately! Everything will fall into place once-"He paused as he took a look at Grima who was new to the greying man. "And who might you be?"

Noting the awkwardness of the situation, he simply answered.

"Grima."

Izuka briefly took a good look at him taking in everything he saw and heard. After satisfying his curiosity he continued to ramble on.

"Well. You must meet the Prince immediately! The silver-haired Maiden! Wielder of Sacrifice! Working with the lost PRINCE! I am just brilliant."

Finally removing himself from Micaiah he turned around towards the entrance.

"General!" He yelled to the white armored warrior. "I must prepare the royal family for this momentous occasion"

He then promptly left everyone in varying degrees of confusion and annoyance. It was Grima who broke the long silence.

"Eccentric." He repeated the words that he heard someone describe him.

"Yes." The man who described him as such said. As his hand seemed to have migrated from under his nose to his forehead. "As helpful as he is he truly tries my patience."

Truly a character, one can hope that his'eccentric' is only thing remarkable about him. But knowing his luck . . .

"Earlier you said you were acquainted with another dark mage, General." Grima asked. Hoping to move away from the previous show.

"Ah yes." The old general regaining some of his composure. "As I was about to say, the other dark mage I know is the Prince himself."

This revelation shocked everyone. Including the general's two companions.

"Tauroneo! I didn't know he was a dark mage!" The redhead practically yelled.

"Yes. I only knew myself is because Izuka gifted him some dark tomes and he informed me himself." The general supplied. "It's not a secret if you're wondering."

"Well that is quite the revelation." Grima eventually said. "Seems we're just getting revelation after revelation right now."

Grima now gave a very pointed look towards Micaiah.

Feeling the sudden attention, she gave a very dumb look back to Grima as she pointed a finger to herself to confirm if it's her he was talking about.

"Oh don't play dumb, Silver-haired Maiden." He said with mocking grandiose. "The wielder of Sacrifice! I didn't you tell me I was travelling with a celebrity."

His comments instantly got a reaction from her as a deep-red blush began to grow from her cheeks to the rest of her face.

"It's not like I want such a status!" She instantly protested only to realize too late she gave Grima what he wanted.

"Alright, alright." Putting up his hands to calm her down. "I was just surprised. And Sacrifice? What is that?"

"Well it's just my abh-"But before she could answer him another loud voice coming from the entrance interrupted her.

"Look Here!" It was Izuka once again with his surprisingly piercing voice. "I introduce the Grand Prince Pelleas, true-born son of King Ashnard and rightful ruler of Daein."

Moving out towards the side, Izuka allowed a blue, curly haired boy walk past him to the forefront of everyone. He wore layers of clearly expensive silks that denote his royal status. But his facial expression exudes a softness and gentleness one wouldn't expect from a would-be-king but he wouldn't go so far to call him baby face.

"And here be the Queen-Mother, Consort to the late King Ashnard. Lady Almedha."

Just behind the young prince came a dark-brown skinned older women. She clearly had the characteristics of a mother but what intrigued Grima was her chose of wardrobe. He isn't one to presume women fashion in this world but she wears a black dress with an equally dark hat with a veil covering much of her facial features. But when he concentrates enough he is able to discern dark-flowing greenish hair and a strange red mark at her temple. All of it bears the resemblance of a funeral dress to mourn the passing of a loved one.

Was her relationship with the late king that strong?

But something immaterial about her piqued his interest. But before he could delve deep into this line of thought, Izuka made his outside voice known once again.

"And Look at you! Do you not realize who you stand before? Did this desert fry you're brain so much you insult the royal sovereign!?"

"It's alright Izuka." The prince immediately intervened. "I may not have been a prince for long but I do not want to force ceremony on those who saved us this day."

"Not long?" Micaiah picking up on what he said. "What do you mean of that?"

"Until a half-a-year ago, I lived a life as a commoner until of course Izuka found me and reunited me with my mother." He spoke truthfully. "To be honest, I'm still adjusting to the fact I'm a prince . . . it's all overwhelming."

"Nonsense, you're my precious son" The queen immediately said in a motherly voice. "My sweet son, Prince Pelleas. I'll never let you out of my sight. Never again."

Grima wasn't the only one who picked up the slight unhinged undertones as Izuka brought attention to himself.

*Ahem* "Moving onto business. Micaiah of the Dawn Brigade I hereby dub you Vice-Commander of the Daein Liberation Army."

The sudden appointment took Grima (once again) by surprise as he was sure he did a double take to find Izuka's face completely serious and unabashedly proud.

Luckily for Grima he didn't need to voice his surprise as it was Sothe who spoke first.

"Excuse me!? What do you mean by that!?"

Surprisingly Micaiah was able to get out of her goldfish impersonation to regain some level composure.

"Sothe please. Yelling like that in front of the prince is rude." Able to get the green shirt to back down. "I appreciate the gracious offer but I must decline. I have neither war experience nor intricate knowledge of battlefield tactics; Daein needs a general with both of these traits."

After her final comment she returned the pointed look back towards Grima, practically laying the offer at his feet. But he stood firm and almost disinterested with her implied suggestion, yes he's everything she described of what the offer requires. But this requires more than a technocratic approach.

And it seems Izuka had a similar idea as it seems he wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Are you not the leader of the Dawn Brigade whose reputation gives hope to the laymen and whose notoriety gives fear to our shared enemy?" He angrily delivered, not giving up on this golden opportunity. "Do you not to wish to see the average citizen delivered from today's injustices? Did you not want to serve under your Prince? Isn't that why you are here today? So why the hesitation, you should seize this gracious offer given to you with both hands!"

Even with Izuka's hyperbole and pretty rhetoric Sothe and Micaiah looked undeterred.

"This is a thinly veiled scheme . . . we will have nothing of it. You just want Micaiah to be the pretty façade for your own revolution!" Sothe angrily retorted.

"What of it?" Izuka unashamedly asked.

"What of it?" Micaiah repeated incredulously. "Everything! I'm not something to be used and thrown away when broken. If that is your offer then I refuse."

Grima was actually disappointed with how this conversation broke down and he was prepared to intervene until the Prince moved forward to stand in front of Micaiah; eye to eye as equals.

"Micaiah please." Pelleas began with his gentle tone and honest words unchanged the last time he spoke. "Izuka may have been harsh, but he speaks from the heart. You're not the only one who is unqualified. Just a year ago I was just a boy studying in an orphanage; a nobody with no title or family. But given the devastation of our people are suffering through today, this nobody chose to be brave and take up the title of Prince and son of King Ashnard."

The prince brought out his right hand in a clear gesture of cooperation.

"So I ask you Micaiah, not the leader of the Dawn Brigade, to join our cause for our people."

The three of them was honestly moved by the prince's words.

Grima thought he was soft-spoken, honest to a fault person who trusts easily. Grima still thought that but it's clear that there is more substance than he earlier gleamed.

". . .Prince Pelleas . . ." Micaiah said while looking at his extended hand.

Taking in everything she heard today to come to her answer.

"I will." Taking his hand in agreement.

"Micaiah?!" The concerned Sothe said.

"So long as you swear to give Daein the opportunity to be free again." She amended.

"I swear." The honest prince repeated.

"Then I will trust in the weight of your words." She said.

* * *

It seems the day is finally coming to end by the time the brigade-no, army returned to camp. The next day they make the trek out of the desert for civilization and begin the long process of liberation. But now is time to rest.

But for Grima he was silently patrolling the perimeter of the camp or that was the excuse he gave to anyone who was curious. In reality he was silently brooding over everything that came to past in the last 24 hours.

"Was that for the best?" Robin asked hoping to break his brooding silence.

"Yes." Saying no more.

Not happy with the answer he gave, Robin continued to press.

"Why did you let her take the position that she clearly did not want and not step up yourself?"

"Exactly the same reasons said during the original conversation." Once again giving Robin an unsatisfying answer.

Silence once again returned as Robin was to annoyed with Grima to dignify him with a response. But after some time Grima began to speak again.

"You're still curious right? Well I'll give you an answer now."

Perking up, it was just know Robin noticed that Grima not alone. No, it seems he was in the company of Sothe and Micaiah.

"Micaiah! Is it alright if I ask you some questions?" Gaining attention of the two as it was clear they came alone to talk between themselves. Receiving the okay he continued. "Why did you accept the Prince's offer?"

Fully expecting the question she gave her immediate response.

"Because I want to save Daein more than anything, if I can help this way, I will."

"You didn't sound so convinced when Izuka offered you the same thing?" Asking the perennial question that Robin was seeking.

"You're right." Micaiah sounding rather embarrassed. "In fact, I would have preferred it if you took the position.

"I noticed, glad I didn't." Noticing her look of bewilderment he continued. "I may be good with tactics and strategy, but I'm no inspiring leader."

"The last battle would beg to differ." Surprisingly it was Sothe who commended him.

"Indeed the brigade fought with honor and distinction." Grima said with a bit of grandiosity. "But they didn't fight for me. They fought and believed in you, Micaiah."

Pointing his finger directly to the increasingly embarrassed Micaiah, Grima went on.

"You are inspirational, honorable, and kind but above all else you're just a simple girl trying her best to help a nation."

This seemed to have done the trick as a scarlet red blush ran across her face. While Sothe was none to please with Grima's choice of words.

"I accepted Prince Pelleas's offer because I believed his words." She finally said even with her blushing apparent. "He cherishes the same wish I do. I can feel it. Deep in his heart, he wants to save Daein, so together we will achieve that dream."

Once again, Grima found himself analyzing her words, attempting to parse out any deeper meanings he could miss. And deeper meanings abound. He knew double-speak quite intimately as he experienced it first hand during his time working as the first Strategos for the first rulers of a newly formed Plegia.

But he also knew how inappropriate it would be to ask.

"We?" Deciding to go with this line of questioning.

"Yes." Finally reigning in her blush. "As I said earlier I don't have intimate knowledge with tactics and strategy. So I'm requesting you to advise me in that regard."

"If that is what the silver-haired maiden requests of me. Who am I to deny?" Bowing in playful mockery to her formal request.

"That was your angle the whole time? Wasn't it?" Sothe accused finally speaking out.

"If Micaiah wanted me on a frontline basis, I wouldn't deny her then." He said to placate the green-haired ninja. "But I would've made the compelling case it would've been a grave misappropriation of my skill-set."

* * *

 **A.N. Please review about anything; I really appreciate all of your reviews.**


	4. Chapter 4 Stumbling Forward

**I'll be honest, this chapter was supposed to come out a week earlier, but unforeseen events pushed the release date back.  
**

 **Luckily this chapter is only about 2000 words less, so I accomplished one of my goals. (FN word count is a lie, this chapter is less than 8000 even with A/N.)  
**

 **Thanks to WarriorofLight12 for the Beta.**

 **Radiant Awakening**

* * *

 **Chapter 4 Stumbling Forward**

This is the type of weather that Grima could get behind.

The sun was still bright, but not as oppressive, as the green fields replaced the dreary dunes of the deserts. Meanwhile, the temperature was cool with a slight gust of wind.

It's been a couple of weeks since the newly formed Daein Liberation Army left the Desert of Death, and since then they've been traveling through the countryside keeping away from any major population centers and Begnion Occupation garrisons, All the while planting the seeds of hope and liberation to the general populace.

It's a simple plan. Nothing glorious, but all great things start from humble beginnings. That's at least what Izuka keeps repeating word for word.

He isn't disagreeing with the royal vizier, in fact he would've done exactly the same thing, except with a lot less pomp.

Practically everything he exhorted had to be grandiose and over embellished to the nth degree.

Such as the rumors and posters he spread throughout the country about Micaiah and Prince Pelleas. Grima only gone through a couple of drafts, but he was sure Micaiah was doing her part without those huge biceps.

That's not to say his information campaign isn't effective. Practically no one in Daein from the average peddler to the General of the Begnion forces didn't know about the 'silver-haired maiden' working with the lost prince of Daein.

Right now is a perfect illustration of its effectiveness.

Grima, along with said maiden and her bodyguard was visiting this far-removed village to procure supplies and some information. The moment they entered the interior of the village they were instantly mobbed by well-wishers who wanted to meet with the silver-haired maiden'.

Because of this, Grima was able to extricate himself from the group to conduct their needed business.

But as he went on with his business, with the villagers he noticed a clear demographic disparity. He noticed a clear majority in the favor of females, and what males he did see were old as 50, and as young as 12.

This situation wasn't unique to this remote village alone, but judging by the stream of intelligence he was receiving, it clearly painted a bleak picture that all of the combat-age males were either pressed into work camps, or interned in concentration camps.

From what little first-hand accounts that reached his eyes, the living conditions of these camps were stark at best and often worse. Overwork and general abuse by the guards and exploitive nobles running rampant is the norm, while random executions and other extreme behavior were non-existent as far as he was aware. Regardless, everything he perused is a perfect case of crimes against humanity.

That's not to say life outside the camps were any rosier. From this village alone, he could easily see they were struggling as is. With the majority of labor and skilled workers gone, the women and children struggled to replace their lost breadwinners.

But there is a reason for this madness. As much as Micaiah and Pelleas would hate him for it, he had to admit that this was a very sound strategy that fits well into their greater brutalization campaign.

This lack of skilled labor negatively affects the Liberation army, and hard. This would be the 7th village in a row where no real supplies could be procured. With all the smithies, fletchers and cobblers interned or already on their side, they could only make do with a small amount of second-hand weapons and armor, which were in poor quality to boot.

Additionally, any sort of recruitment drive to increase troop numbers is seriously hampered with the fact most of the fighting-age men is interned in camps. And with the countryside struggling to feed themselves, he would find it difficult to find a reliable supply of foodstuffs to feed a growing army.

So with one fell swoop, the Begnion Occupational Army is able to artificially cap the maximum fighting force of the Daein Liberation Army.

But that is not to say all hope is lost. Looking again at the village he is surprised to see a 'euphoria' among the residents upon meeting their little band of freedom fighters. They would, quite aggressively, express the need to defeat the Begnions and so would provide any aid they have on hand on the condition we save their husbands, sons and brothers. And this sentiment was shared with every Daein they've met so far.

Especially with this lass who is able to get Grima's attention. Judging from her dirt stained clothes and hands, she works in one of the fields outside the village.

"Please take this! Please use this to free my brother from those monsters!" She said with a tired pant as she held out in her outstretched hand a small pouch of what he assumed is coins.

From the sweat beading down her forehead, it's clear she rushed here to give her measly contribution for the war effort.

"Your brother was taken to one of the work camps?" Stating a question he knew the answer to already.

But from the eager nod from the lass, it seems to comfort her to know he understood.

"Well I don't know how far my words could go" Grima continued. "But I assure you that I'll do my utmost for you to see him again."

"Your words?" The lass said questionably. "Aren't you related to the silver-haired maiden?"

A single blink is all it took for Grima to understand what she just implied.

He gave her a soft snort before he continued. "Contrary to the similar hair colors my relationship with the maiden is not one of familial ties."

Grima had to admit he was surprised he didn't get this more often from those who aren't in the know. And at the same time he finds the idea of a sister like Micaiah to be quite humorous.

But it seems the poor lass didn't share this same sentiment as she blushed a hard red from his revelation.

"I'm sorry for the misunderstanding! But please!" Once again outstretching the little coin bag. "Take this."

There was a good minute of silence as Grima simply stared at the increasingly nervous village girl.

But soon his analyzing look was replaced with a well-practiced soft smile.

"I understand your sentiment but I'm afraid I can't do that." But before she could insist he brought up his hand to stop her as he continued. "I can tell that this is your savings that you personally worked hard to earn. Isn't that right?"

Receiving a small nod he went on.

"Then I can't in good conscious take this from you. If word got out that I took money from a clearly struggling villager . . ."He didn't finish his sentence to allow the lass to fully comprehend what he was implying. "This wouldn't only reflect poorly to me, but to the Maiden and Prince as well."

"So please, for their sakes as well, keep it."

Getting an affirmative nod, Grima watched the lass make a run to what he presumes was her home.

As he blankly stared where he last saw the lass disappear from his sight, Grima couldn't help but wonder how much was inside that little pouch. He doubted it was anything larger than a sum of 200G.

It would be rather disappointing to come out of this village empty-handed but the alternative of ruining a poor family's financial situation didn't sit well with him.

But his silent brooding was ruined when a familiar voice spoke up behind him.

"Did we get any supplies here?" Turning around to meet Sothe and Micaiah return from their impromptu meet-and-greet with the locals.

"I'm afraid this was another bust in that department." He said forlornly. "At this rate we would be in better shape if we foraged for basic supplies."

Taking a better look he noticed Sothe carrying a pouch he didn't have when they first entered the village.

Seems he wasn't the only one practically accosted to take in monetary donations.

"You didn't take that girls donation." Sothe said as if reading his mind. "She wanted to make her contribution to the cause and you didn't let her." He said matter of factly.

"She clearly needed it more." He raised an eyebrow wondering a bit where Sothe was getting at.

"Since you were complaining about a lack of resources I'm curious why you would reject it when it's shoved in your face." Sothe said with both an accused and curious tone.

"I'm pretty sure I spelled out my reasoning quite clearly in the conversation you eavesdropped in." Grima smugly said and getting a dirty look from Sothe in response.

"Now, now you two" Micaiah diplomatically intervened very used to these two constant bickering. "We're all friends here."

"But on the bright side" Grima continued as if nothing has happened. "We didn't come out of this completely empty-handed."

Answering their bewildered looks, Grima continued as he leads the group out of the village.

"We've confirmed the accuracy of our intelligence reports and the effectiveness of Izuka's

'Information' campaign."

"Didn't we confirm this from the previous villages we visited?" Sothe questioned.

"Yes we did, but now we confirmed how widespread it is on both counts." Grima answering his question.

"I can't believe you agreed to his ludicrous idea." Sothe once again letting his disapproval show. "And can't you at least have the decency to call it what it is. Propaganda."

"Sothe, I went over my reasoning the first time we discussed this." Letting out a tired breath of exasperation. "And of course I agree with you that this is propaganda but you need to realize propaganda comes in three unique flavors; falsehoods, half-truths and truths. What separates propaganda and anything else is solely intent, not that one is good or one is bad."

It seems Micaiah is paying closer attention to the conversation the two boys were having. Or at least she's forced too, as she stood in-between the two as a natural buffer.

"So let me ask you this Sothe." Wanting to bring the point home. "Do you find our 'information', inherently bad?"

That at least got the wannabe ninja to pause and think about his next words.

Even Micaiah, who didn't need to give an answer, was thinking hard, judging by her lowered eyebrows.

"No, I know what we're spreading isn't inherently bad." Finally answering his question. "But that doesn't mean we can't be honest."

Grima couldn't help but release a tired sigh. It seems this requires a more intimate explanation.

"And what would be the reason for telling them the truth? Altruism?" Grima asked but he didn't give him a chance to answer. "Given it's you, partly, but that wouldn't be entirely accurate, would it?"

"The reason you want to spread the word is because you want the population to know Micaiah and the Prince is joining forces so they would support us and not them. You want the population to know their loved ones are forced into these inhumane camps so they would support us and not them. You want the population to know that 'we' will be the ones to save said loved ones and the country as a whole so they would support us and not them."

It seems he went too far as it seems he not only cowed Sothe to silence but Micaiah as well. He won't be hearing the end of this from Sothe any time soon.

But before he could amend his statement Micaiah spoke up.

"You're right that is partly why we want to spread the word." She paused as she carefully thought her next words, as if her existence depended on it. "But that doesn't change the fact that this is the best way to help them. So no amount of semantics will change that."

He really needs to stop underestimating her. If he keeps this up he'll never fully trust her.

Grima openly let out an amused snort.

"That is exactly the attitude I was looking for. Thank you for showing me, Micaiah." He meant what he said. Seems his natural teaching instincts are kicking in once again.

Micaiah gave a small blush from his honest praise that wasn't lost to the two boy's.

Immediately seeing where this conversation could go, Grima continued by pointing at the green-haired boy.

"As for you, I expect you to follow her example."

"Example?" Giving the dark mage a dirty look. "Was this whole exercise just a teaching lesson for you?"

"For one of you at least." Grima smugly retorted.

Micaiah couldn't help let out another exasperated sigh. This is going to be a long trek back to camp. Hopefully whoever is on cooking duty could give her a larger portion.

* * *

During the early morning hours where the sun is just now fully basking the plain with its light-rays, a hooded figure is weaving through the various tents towards its destination.

Upon reaching the entrance of a much larger tent, the figure readjusted a very thick tome of papers he was carrying. Finding his grip to satisfaction he entered the tent which to his surprise was already occupied.

Both Sothe and Micaiah were busy standing in front of a table in the middle of this spacious tent. Whatever they were talking about, he simply hoped it was about today's topic.

"Well I'm surprised; I thought I was the early riser." Catching the two's surprise with his sudden appearance as he removed his hood.

"Grima? Why are you here early?" Micaiah asked with an unmasked worry on her face. Sothe simply looked rather annoyed with his presence, but that was hardly new.

"I'm just making sure everyone present in the meeting receives their summary report." He spoke, gesturing to his stack of papers slung around his left arm as he walked up to the table to the two of them.

"You really went ahead and did that, did you?" Sothe comments.

"Of course, I did say I was making these during our last meetings." Taking a look at the table, he saw a large map depicting Daein divided among its various territories and cities, which also included major geographic features. Also on the table, he noticed one of his memos he distributed in the last meeting.

"I see you were reviewing before I got here. It's good to know someone else shares my enthusiasm for preparedness." He complimented them, but he knew reviewing was the last thing the two were doing before he arrived. This was clear since the memo was out of immediate reach from the two them.

This is also reinforced by the face Micaiah was giving, as it was clear she thought she didn't deserve such praise. But if she wanted to admit Grima was wrong in this case, she couldn't as Sothe gave a quick response.

"Yes, we were discussing very important matters about the upcoming battle."

Giving Sothe a knowing smirk, Grima nodded. "Well I'm glad. Since we're in the topic of reports" He trailed off, removing two identical stacks of paper from the pile and setting it in front of the two on the table.

Grima couldn't contain his feral grin as he saw the color drain from their faces. He found it difficult to find something to rile up the green-haired youth but it seems he found it.

In front of the two were two packets of papers. Both were about 24 pages long and contained both a shorten-summary and a long-list. Nothing to intimidating and should be comprehensible to anyone who can read.

But he heard the rumors.

Oh yes.

Since their first official meeting, he has taken the liberty of instituting a paper-trail rule that wasn't particularly well received among the more free-spirited individuals.

But as the adjutant Strategos he needed to get organized as the army inevitably grows in size in the future.

But that doesn't change the fact that any sort of paperwork is seen as an unnecessary evil to those very same free-spirits.

Such as these two.

He could already imagine their faces once they get to 'pros and cons' on the long-list form.

But before he could completely lose himself, his musings were disrupted when he heard a small female voice speak.

"You worked so hard to hand write this make this many copies . . ."

It was clear when Micaiah said that she didn't intend for anyone to hear it. Judging from Sothe's still colorless face, her small voice could only be heard by half of those present.

But it wasn't just the lack of loudness that concerned him but by how distant it sounded. Like she lost a competition she was gunning to win.

The last thing he needs to do is make his benefactor feel inadequate, unintentionally or not.

"I was very lucky I finished these copies on time." Emphasizing the amount by slamming the rest onto the table. "I spent a good chunk of my time with Volug with his language courses."

"You teach Volug the local language?" Sothe asked grabbing Grima's change of topic as if it was a life preserver.

"I don't teach him anything" He admitted, looking away as if he were embarrassed. "In fact I would say he is the teacher while I was the student as he taught me more about the ancient language."

"In fact I'm hoping I can send him your way Micaiah."

"Me?" Her eyes widening with the sudden focus upon her.

"Yes you." Amused he got that reaction from her. "Volug already has a proficient structure to speak the local language but he lacks any confidence to use it."

"But if he were to learn from the same confidence you usually exude . . ." Letting her fill the blanks. "Then you've done a better job than I would have."

It seems his obvious attempts of improving her self-esteem didn't go unnoticed by her. But neither did it fail in its intention as a small smile began to replace her gloom.

Now it's time to hit her with the big guns.

"Well since we still have time on our hands" he said, reaching into the pile and removing a single copy for himself. "We should use it to go over my reports. The long-list first.

Once again the color on their faces disappeared as the two of them reluctantly picked up their copies to follow along.

*Ahem* "To begin, I would like to quickly go over the methodology in which I filtered the raw intelligence data we've been receiving. So please turn to page 7-"

As Grima went on, the two of them stood as they went over the opening of the long-list.

But it was only Micaiah who had a face of determination and concentration to not only understand the information, but absorb it as well.

After running through several pages of the 'long-list' proposal, it seems salvation finally arrived for the two mentally battered individuals in the room.

That salvation took the form of General Tauroneo and his aide Jill.

"Ah, Lady Micaiah, young Sothe and Sir Grima what brought you to come in early?" The sterling white general asked.

"Please General, just Grima, I'm no blue-blood" Easily transitioning from reviewing papers to greeting the general. "And to answer your question we were just going over today's reports."

Handing out their copies for the meeting today the generals kept his face stoic and professional as he long ago got use to the idea of paperwork.

Jill on the other hand had a face similar to what Micaiah and Sothe earlier had worn.

"Well then, you should all make yourself presentable as his highness and his entourage is coming in soon." The general warned as he and Jill moved to their pre-determined spot.

Like clockwork, the three of them moved into their spots with Micaiah in the middle, Grima to her left and Sothe to her right.

After a brief time of fiddling with his report and books, the Prince and his entourage arrived to the war council.

Prince Pelleas wearing his usual royal garb was flanked by his mother to his left and Izuka to his right.

As the royal entourage settled at the head of the table, it wasn't the Prince who addressed the council but Izuka.

"Well, well! The rumors that my… operatives started have spread like wildfire through all of Daein! Late King Ashnard's orphan surfaces! Silver-Haired-"

As Izuka began to run his mouth as he normally does, Grima's ever analytical mind began to scrutinize Izuka's behavior.

He was the one opening such an important meeting and not the Prince. In fact, all previous meetings started the same and ended the same; with the Prince barely speaking a word. This display shows who was truly in charge of the situation; and he was doing it so flagrantly.

Micaiah may not understand or care to understand these kinds of subtleties. But Grima isn't so blind to the implications such assertion of soft-power could hold, and judging by the hard look Tauroneo was giving Izuka, he wasn't either.

Sadly for the two of them, this would be reality because it was the Prince who is consenting to it. So for the ever loyal Tauroneo, this disrespect of sovereign rights had to be tolerated.

Luckily for everyone here, Grima doesn't hold such loyalty.

"-Now that we have the people's attention…we snag their hearts! We'll just extol the savior, fan the rebellion, go to battle…and conquer the enemy in a blaze of glory!" Izuka finally finishing his long winded opening.

"Indeed, already we have the people's hopes and dreams on our side" Grima taking Izuka's momentary break to get in the conversation. "But sentiments alone do not win battles, men and metal do and we are hopelessly lacking in both areas."

"Such insolence!" Izuka practically screamed. "Do you not believe our soldiers would carry the day over these invaders?"

"Of course they would." Everyone raising their eyebrows at what Grima said. "It was fighting with them during the thick and thin that led me to such a conclusion."

The victorious smirk on Izuka was clearly evident but dropped when Grima continued.

"But it was this same experience that showed me the simple disparity between us and the Occupational Army that needs to be addressed."

It was then Izuka's smirk returned with a vengeance as he began to center the map on the table.

"Worry not! It was through my painstaking investigation, I have determined the perfect target that would satisfy your concerns and more."

He then pointed at a single point on the map with his bony finger.

"Talrega! Talrega will be our first conquest. Talrega lay on the fringes of the country, couple that with its rough natural terrain the Begnions hold is tenuous at best."

Just by looking at his smug look you could easily tell he was patting himself in the back for this 'amazing' choice.

Taking a peak to the rest of the occupants, however, it was clear that Micaiah disagreed with that choice as he noticed a slight shaking of her head.

Interestingly Tauroneo seemed to also disagree, as he noticed the old general had his copy of Grima's report opened to the summary which clearly spells out his views in detail.

"Talrega huh?" Grima said aloud as he brought his right hand to his chin. "Talrega is remote relative to the rest of the country and anti-Begnion sentiment runs high here."

"There is even a supply road and depot that runs through the territory from Begnion to supply the Occupational Army."

Bringing his hands to his sides, he prepared to drop the cold water.

"But I must disagree. Talrega shouldn't be our first target."

Izuka's change of face was instant but luckily for everyone he wouldn't be able to retort as someone else intervened.

"I agree Talrega is no good." Micaiah said with authority in her voice that demanded to be heard.

"An attack on Talrega now would be poorly timed as the notorious rains in the region that create landslides would hamper our advance, let alone the battlefield."

Grima could only give a small smirk at the information Micaiah gave. It seems she also gave more than 5 minutes of thought for their target. She revealed critical information only a local were aware of from what Jill indicated. Something that even Grima failed to get.

But that's not to say she was using her own knowledge. During her argument against Talrega, she very frequently cited his own report to back her up.

This gave the reason for everyone except for Micaiah and Tauroneo to pick up their own copies to follow-along.

"So even though there is a supply route that runs through Talrega, it isn't a primary or even a secondary supply route but a tertiary one. So the only supplies we would make off would be ink bottles and pillows."

With Micaiah done with her oral argument, the meeting became quiet as they began to digest the information they were given.

It wasn't completely silent as Izuka was desperately finding a flaw in Grima's long-list as he quietly whimpered how perfect his plan is.

"Micaiah." It was the prince who finally broke the silence. "What would you recommend for our target?"

"Terin." She answered with no hesitation at all. "Terin would be the best target for not only our first victory but also an important base of supplies."

"An important base for supplies?" The general repeated skeptically. "Excuse me for saying this but isn't Terin too mountainous and arid for any meaningful amount of supplies?"

It was at that question that Micaiah gave a non-verbal queue to Grima to take over explanations.

"Not at all, General" Getting everyone's attention as he picked up the report to begin. "If you take a look at the summary report just after the opening, it's noted that Terin is much more than what you described, general."

"There is a river valley that cuts right through the mountains where the majority of the inhabitants live. This valley has very rich soil; couple that with the running river; makes the Terin river valley a large agricultural producer, mostly in grain and cereals. With Terin's capture we wouldn't need to worry about feeding our expanding army."

This seems to satisfy the generals' question as he nodded in acknowledgement.

"Micaiah and Grima, you two are amazing!" The Prince happily praised. "I'm very glad I have you two for council."

"Is there any objection with Terin as our target?" After receiving no nays the Prince nodded. "Then Terin it is."

Micaiah was visibly relieved with the Princes agreement. But that relief was interrupted when Jill caught her attention.

"I'm surprised you knew about the landslides Micaiah, have you been to Talrega?"

"Only once before." She admitted.

"Only once?" Jill was about to ask another question but luckily Sothe intervened on Micaiah's behalf.

"Micaiah is a powerful Seer." He spoke as if it not a big deal. "Many of us in the Dawn brigade owe Micaiah our survival to her skills.

Everyone in the room except for the Dawn members looked at Micaiah with both awe and surprise which only further embarrassed the Seer.

But the surprise didn't extend to Grima. Sometime after leaving the desert, the three of them got together and explained to each other a quick summary of themselves. Micaiah seer abilities were mentioned along with Sothe's time with the Greil Mercenaries.

Grima as well went a more in-depth with himself, touching on his experience as an instructor in dark magic and his experience with curses and hexes which did garner more of response from the two than his dark magic abilities.

But of course they kept their opinions to themselves.

Grima always saw himself as a more rational and logical person. So when it comes to abilities pertaining to looking into the future, he always been skeptical.

He only ever met self-proclaimed seers who were more at times loud than correct.

So when it was revealed that Micaiah is a Seer he couldn't help but show his surprise but the long-time members of the brigade would all proclaim her abilities to be true.

But his logical self couldn't accept something like this. Seeing into the future would require enormous amounts of energy no human could hold themselves.

Something else was involved. He didn't like going into this line of thought as he generally regarded her as simply too truthful to a fault, but it's entirely within the realm of possibilities that she too have her own secrets she didn't wish to share.

Maybe it involves that nagging feeling he always felt about her.

But before he could go further in-depth his ponderings were shattered by a loud screech.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhggghhhk!"

It was Izuka.

Is the hunched-backed man having a heart attack?

But alas they weren't so lucky as the greying recovered quickly.

"She can foresee battle outcomes!? Magnificent! Why didn't anybody tell me of this?" It was clear from Izuka's eyes that this revelation truly made his day. "This only makes the maiden that much more appealing. And let us just be honest here, my foresight in decreeing her vice- general was wondrous–nay, genius!"

Grima immediately gave Sothe a look of both bewilderment and concern from his irregular behavior.

It seems Sothe got what he was implying as he stood straighter in readiness.

*Ahem* Coughing loudly to get everyone's attention to himself Grima spoke up.

"With the target finalized I would like to transition the topic to the planning stage of our assault, if that is alright with you, your grace."

Prince Pelleas looked taken aback as he seems too worried with Izuka's behavior.

But it seems even Izuka was able to recompose himself.

"Indeed it's time we move on."

Grima openly narrowed his eyes with Izuka's open disrespect to the Prince. He could tell his ego will be a hurdle to the war effort.

But for now he could only lower his head in deferment.

"Well I would like to recommend sending a scouting team ahead of the army to Terin to get a more in-depth view of the area and the garrison."

* * *

Several hours of deliberations later, Grima is walking outside in the company of Micaiah.

The meeting was long and mentally draining for the Maiden as clearly shown by her short, slow walking strides.

Grima on the other hand was in a particularly good mood. He didn't realize how much he missed being a Strategos and doing it again for Micaiah was actually rejuvenating.

But he wasn't so dense to see her struggling to keep up during the meeting, so he took it upon himself to end the meeting early and let himself and Tauroneo do the fine tuning at a later date.

Several individuals in the meeting left early to carry on their business such as Almedha, Jill and much to his own displeasure, Sothe.

He did try to subtly have her take a break; or at the very least, leave early as well, but she was either aware enough to his schemes or too stubborn to give in.

Still the meeting was very productive and he was very confident on the capabilities of his compatriots in the decision making aspects of war.

One such aspect is sending an advance scouting party to Terin for more in-depth information of the situation. It was decided that the scouting party would be made up Sothe and Jill.

So the two of them left early to assemble their team, which is the reason why the grass head is currently absent from Micaiah's company. Much to his vocal displeasure.

Grima did admit to himself that he does have a ulterior motive to separating the two; but his motives were done with good intentions as Micaiah needs to develop without the suffocation Sothe gives her.

And Micaiah isn't the only one who needs this type of treatment.

But for now this will do.

"You didn't need to come with me" His silver-haired companion said. "I'm just notifying a few people of our destination."

"Your right, I didn't need too. But were both going towards the merchant convoy, so it only makes sense we go together." He states matter of factly.

"Unless . . . you don't want my company?" He playfully teases, as he knew exactly what her answer would be.

Predictably, she recoiled at the suggestion as she assertively answers back.

"No of course not! I treasure your company."

He chuckled as the realization dawns on her as she fell for one of his games, once again.

"How'd you feel about our meeting?" Deciding she deserved enough. For now.

"Eye-opening." She said after a couple of seconds of thought.

"Eye-opening? How so?" Honestly curious of her perspective.

"Everything." She simply said. She took a single look at Grima's curious face as she extrapolated. "When it was just the Dawn Brigade, and before we met you, we never had anything so 'formal' and 'detailed' before."

"At times it honestly made me feel out of place; like I had no business being at that discussion table."

"And then I look at you." She said.

"At me?" He questioned but he had an idea where she was coming from.

"Yes, you look so assured with yourself as you go into detail about your plans, it's honestly terrifying."

"Terrifying." Letting the familiar descriptor roll of his tongue. "Is that how you view me?"

It seems Micaiah is able to learn from her past mistakes as she only looked at him unamused with his antics.

"You know that's not remotely true."

"The same can easily be said about you belonging in the meeting." He said with no break in his amused tone.

But that amusement instantly fell as he turned to Micaiah with a 'terrifying' look.

"And I mean that, wholeheartedly. Keep in mind that everything here is accomplished because of your hard work." Micaiah began to look abashed with the sudden praise but she also didn't shy away from his stare.

"It was you who convinced the others to create the Dawn Brigade. It was you who gave hope to the denizens of Daein. It was you who led the Dawn Brigade to Prince Pelleas. It was you who agreed to work with said Prince and form the Daein Liberation Army; now it was you who ultimately chose Terin."

"But it was your report that convinced them." She noted.

"You were set on Terin as our target before you even looked at the report." From her reaction he hit the nail on that. "Keep in mind that that Terin was first on the long-list. It could've been any of the other four on the list; like Riven or Mare Tirrenum. But it was your passion and knowledge that ultimately led to Terin."

"It was merely happenstance that we independently came to the same answer."

It seems that some of her shyness bled away as an amused smirk is seen appearing on her face.

Honestly speaking Grima didn't feel qualified to be the one helping her.

Where was Robin where he needed him? He's the one with experience with these leader archetypes, unlike Grima who only had experience dealing with more ruthless and calculating leaders. Not that it's entirely a bad thing.

"And Micaiah if you honestly don't feel confident in these types of situations, you can always rely on my guidance." Deciding he did a good enough job for today. "That is my job as your adjutant."

"My adjutant" She laughed at the word as she started to walk again. "I thought you were a Strategos."

Grima only narrowed his eyes as he quickly caught up to her.

"You'll only ever hear me refer myself as just adjutant so long as 'he' isn't here to hear it." Taking a quick look at his surrounding for any eavesdroppers.

"Honestly, you two" Sighing as she completely understood that the 'he' referred to Sothe.

"Don't take it the wrong way." Grima quickly amended. "I don't hate Sothe. In fact I like him a lot. It's just that he needs to understand how wrong he is."

She could only sigh as Grima openly admits to his shenanigans.

"So why are you heading to the Merchant convoy?" She asked hoping to change the topic.

"I wanted to thank Aimee for the quality of the Atlas I bought from her."

"You bought an Atlas?"

"Yes, a very detailed one I might add. It was instrumental in my report; so I wished to thank her and to show my appreciation I wanted to special order a few more things from her."

"But here we are and she is nowhere to found." He lamented as he turned his head in every direction for the Merchant.

"Yes, she's normally at her stall at this time." Helping Grima in finding the merchant. "Hmm, oh we should ask Kurth."

Turning where Micaiah pointed he noticed the figure who he is barely acquainted to.

He only ever had glimpses of the back of the cloaked man so this would be the first time he stood in front of him.

"Kurth!" Micaiah yelled getting his attention.

"Micaiah, how nice to see you." Greeting the maiden.

He then turned his look to Grima.

This was also the first time he seen his face. Even with his hood up he was able to discern his striking red eyes and his brown skin.

But what really struck him was his aura. Something about him just emanated power and grace which made him oddly nostalgic.

"Oh you've never met before. Grima, Kurth. Kurth, Grima." Micaiah quickly introduced.

"A pleasure to meet you, Grima." His fellow red eye said.

"A pleasure indeed, Kurth." Grima replied honestly as he suppressed any suspicion or questions stemming from the aura he felt from Kurth.

As feeling these odd feelings isn't justifiable to warrant any questions as he met many people with these 'odd' feelings. Heck, he's walking with one right now.

"Kurth." Micaiah said to get his attention. "Have you seen Aimee anywhere? We're looking for her."

"I think I saw her enter the twins stall."

"Thank you, Kurth." She took her first step to leave until she remembered her business.

"Kurth, I need to tell you that we'll be leaving for Terin soon. I know it's sudden."

"I see, you're off to fulfill your role as Vice-Commander of the 'Liberation Army'." His sudden lament took Micaiah by surprise and won him a curious look from Grima.

"I am." Micaiah flatly replied, wondering where he was going with this.

"I abhor war" He categorically said. "I would rather you not fight."

"Indeed, war is a cruel mistress." Grima instantly replied, preempting any reply from Micaiah. "But one would be a fool to turn away from reality."

Grimas stiff words got him the attention from the both of them.

Kurth looked at Grima from head to toe as if he was a puzzle in need of solving.

But he then turned his look back to Micaiah.

"I understand you wished for another way. I also understand you do this for the good of your country, so I offer you this."

He then planted several papers onto Micaiahs hand.

"I hope this will serve you in the future. I must leave now for my country."

Kurths sudden announcement was once again met by looks of surprise from the two.

"So soon?" Micaiah asked, barely able to form words from her sputtering mouth.

"Being so close to battle frightens me." Kurth spoke, admitting this secret to the two. "Thank you again for rescuing me, the short time we spent together was enjoyable. I will treasure those memories immensely."

"Will we ever see you again?" Micaiah asked, still coping with his sudden announcement.

"I do not know." Kurth honestly said. "It will be up to the goddess."

"Yes, the goddess" She absently repeated.

"Until Next time Micaiah." Then returning his attention to Grima. "I would've liked to know more about you, Grima."

"Hopefully under better circumstances." Returning the gesture as the two of them saw Kurth off.

* * *

The past few days were a busy one for Grima.

After additional meetings, Grima along with Micaiah and Tauroneo were able to forge an agreeable strategy for the Terin operation.

Of course any overall tactical decision hasn't been made yet, as he was still waiting on Sothe and Jill's final scouting report.

From the advance reports he did receive, it seems the enemy is already fortifying their positions with emplaced artillery pieces and reinforcements.

But it seems the enemy commander made these matters a very public affair as an intimidation tactic to cow the local populace to not cooperate with the DLA.

A decision that Grima has every intention of exploiting.

"Well you won't be exploiting anything if you're sitting around drinking that tea."

Ah, how could he forget about his ever-present companion. In fact it's been too long since the last time they spoke.

"It's been 10 days since we last spoke, Robin." Grima mentally stated. "Where have you been?"

"Sleeping." His ghost said matter-of-factly.

"Sleeping?" Grima incredulously repeated. "You need sleeping?"

"Yes, it seems I do." He said as if he was stretching his muscles. "In fact I'm somewhat surprised you don't feel exhausted as I am after everything we've gone through. In fact it looks like your full of energy."

"Blame it on my Draconic side." To be truthful, he was surprised how energetic he was as well. Maybe being lucid to your own actions again can do that.

"Well can you be a doll and explain why your sipping tea in this finely decorated tent instead of working now?" He asked his fellow workaholic.

"Because the Queen-mother requested my presence." After answering Robin's question he took another long sip in a prose that would make any blue-blood jealous.

"You don't know why you're here?" Robin asked as he tried to picture of what happened during his slumber.

"I'm quite ignorant to this meeting she called for and who is also late too." Grima revealed with slightly heavy tone. If that tone was for the snub or his empty tea cup, Robin couldn't tell.

"I didn't think the Queen would act like this to you." Robin wondered aloud. "Well, at least not yet." He amended after a pause.

"Well the Queen has already shown she has a lack of empathy towards others, other than her-"

But before Grima could finish, the entrance of the tent suddenly opened as the late arrival made her self-known.

Grima did the only sensible thing to do when you met someone who was late to their own meeting.

He stood from his comfortable seat and bowed his head in deference.

"Your Grace." He said as if he wasn't internally bad mouthing said royal.

Almedha only looked at him for a second before she sat down opposite of him.

"There's no need to be so formal with me, Grima." She said as a signal to take a seat himself; which he took. "You must understand, Grima, I have a very busy schedule."

"Of course" He replied in understanding. "The war is bound to escalate so we all must do our parts, which unfortunately fills up our schedules."

"Then I'll make this quick for the both of us." She stated with no change in her tone. "I request that you tutor my son in Dark Magic."

"Your son?" He said with a raised eyebrow. "I did hear he is an aspiring dark mage."

"Indeed he is. Very recently he was gifted several dark tomes from Izuka to train his unique skillset. But dark mages are very rare to find." She paused for dramatic effect. "Let alone an experienced one like yourself."

Grima smiled at the Queens attempt of flattery. "It does make sense to ask me. But do you think it's alright to teach him this subject matter?"

"As you said Grima, 'the war is bound to escalate'" Repeating his earlier words. "I'm only doing this for his protection."

Grima once again nodded in agreement. "Unfortunately my schedule is quite full in the near future because of said war."

Of course this is a golden opportunity for Grima, but he's not going to make it easy for her.

"Then make room for it." She said with a growing hint of annoyance.

It seems this is as far as he could to poke the bear.

Grima openly sighed in defeat.

"I would agree to your proposal. In one condition."

Almedha straightened at the words.

"What is it?"

"I would like to expand the subject matter beyond that of mage craft."

"Meaning?" Narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

"To rule." He said flatly.

The Queen-mothers suspicious look turned to one of outright disgust from his implied insult.

But Grima pressed on.

"Your Grace, you and I both know that Prince Pelleas has the will to rule. But does he have the knowledge to rule? It's clear from our war meetings that he is completely out of his depth in regards to war and leadership."

"That's why he has loyal advisors for." The queen countered.

"Indeed, he is very lucky to have such loyal and competent advisors."

"But let me ask you this, your grace. Who would teach him to discern such advisors? The yes-man General Tauroneo? The transparently ambitious Izuka?" Grima would hate himself for bring this up. "Or Micaiah?"

It seems that last part got to her as she looked away from him in critical thought with a look of displeasure.

'And you think you're the most qualified?" She asked.

"Yes." He said with no hesitation.

Grima very much has experience with tutoring and advising Kings and future Kings.

He only ever had two examples and the results from the two are mixed as they both died in the end. But the rule of Hegemon Philip and his son and future Hegemon Alex was prosperous and stable. Especially in the wider context of the turmoil during the Great Schism.

So he isn't lying.

And the Queen-Mother noticed this resolution within him. She'd seen Grima operate with confidence and conviction during their war meetings. Something her son desperately needs.

She also has seen how he would always defer to a higher authority, either be it Micaiah or her son. So he at least has some sense of loyalty.

But she'll be trusting her only son, her only family to a complete stranger.

With great reluctance she came to her decision.

"Very well, Grima."

* * *

 **To the guest reviewers. I'm glad you like my story and I hope to continue to meet your expectations.**

 **Hopefully 5-7 thousand words would be the average chapter length or I'll burn myself out before I finish this.**

 **I have a question to all the readers. I'm currently undecided if Grima should have any love interest. So if you think he should/or not, tell me and if you think he should, let me know who you think it should be.**

 **Anything is appreciated.**

 **Until next time.**


	5. Chapter 5 The Rise of Something Good

**A/N This took a lot longer than I anticipated, and it's entirely my fault. So apologies for the delay, hopefully this makes up for it. Somehow.**

 **Forgot to add. Thanks to WarriorofLight13 for being my Beta.**

* * *

Chapter 5 The Rise of Something Good

"Another boring day of babysitting duty for the Terin Garrison Group." Commander Laverton internally snorted to himself.

Just like any other day; the workers were up and ready to leave for the fields by 07:30, and officially left the gates of the camp by 07:35. By 07:55, the first confirmation came that the workers has reached their designated fields and began their usual maintenance of them. Then by 19:45 the workers should be safely inside of the camp and ready for curfew at 20:00.

Today will go by with nothing of note, just like the day before and the day before that. The only thing that broke the tedium was the preparation of additional defenses which came from a general order from General Jarid.

If Laverton could be frank, he is actually hopeful the enemy is foolish enough to show their faces here. With that; he could finally prove his tactical superiority and gain the recognition he deserves.

Instead he is banished to this hopelessly peaceful territory, with his only duty of babysitting a bunch of defeated men and children.

"Commander Laverton." A young feminine voice said, disturbing his mental monologue.

"Speaking of babysitting children" Laverton internally complained.

Turning around to face his unwelcome baggage, he was met with the serious face of a young, dark skinned girl wearing blue armor. If he was honest; he found her wearing that armor to be less intimidating and more adorable, like a child pretending to fight a war. At least she wasn't one his Pegasus riders.

"Lady Fiona." Laverton evenly greeted, giving off no ill will.

"Commander Laverton I must once again voice my concern on the placement of our scorpions." Fiona said.

Laverton replied with just a tired sigh, as this was the third time she brought up this particular annoyance.

"And I'll repeat that your concerns are noted, but overall are inconsequential." He said with an ever growing annoyance.

"I'm very glad for that commander." Fiona's own annoyance beginning to show in her tone. "But if the enemy were to gain-"

"The enemy will never get close with my careful preparations." Laverton letting his displeasure and annoyance show. "Lady Fiona, keep in mind that I am the commander of this garrison and my word is final. So if-"

But before he could finish his scolding a loud yelling caught both of their attentions.

"Enemy! Enemy Attack!"

Laverton couldn't believe his ears, an attack? No one would be foolish enough to face him. But Laverton is a smart man. It wasn't hard to connect the dots. Soon his look of surprise morphed into that of a predator whose kill is just within his reach.

"Lady Fiona." Composing himself to hide any emotion, he continued to address her. "Get to your unit and meet up with me."

"Very well sir." She said neutrally as she rode away on her horse to prepare her men for the upcoming battle.

Finally rid of her presence, he made his way to the gate to get a better idea of the situation. Upon reaching the gate; he was met with his men scrambling around to their designated positions, his officers giving their subordinates a 'thorough' encouragement.

But what got his attention was his lieutenant in charge of the gate trying to calm a single tired soldier.

Getting off his horse, he walked his way to the lieutenant with a prose that any respectable officer should have.

"Lieutenant Spiers! Why is this soldier not with the rest of his unit?" Laverton enquired as he gave these two soldiers an intimidating look.

"Commander" Spiers dutifully saluted, giving his commanding officer the respect he expects. "This soldier is part of today's protection squads and the one who warned us of the imminent attack."

"Well then, out with it!" Laverton barked out, his patience already thin with the useless information he was given.

"S-sir." The tired soldier began. Clearly intimidated by his superior officer's tone. "We were guarding the field workers as usual when suddenly we were attacked. It wasn't just my squad that was attacked, but every other squad, at the same time. I only got away because my squad-mates held them off so that I can warn you of the imminent-"

"Irrelevant. Give me details of our enemy strength." Laverton practically shouted out. He was at the cusp of his own glory. And all of these morons are wasting his valuable time with worthless gibber-gabber. "Unit Composition, tactics used, anything I could use soldier!"

"Other than they attacked all of the squads simultaneous and are heading this way." The soldier quietly said, hoping to not further annoy Laverton.

With an annoyed huff he ordered the soldier to guard the gate and ordered Spiers to get him Flight Leader Silea of his Pegasus Knights detachment.

Laverton could only grimace with the thought that Pegasus Knights could be any use for him. They were timid and frail, completely unsuited for any sort of combat outside of being over glorified bodyguards. Now if he had some Draco Knights, they would make a difference.

Sadly, the only aerial units in his disposable are said Pegasus Knights, so he should be able to find a use of them.

In the meantime, he took the time to prepare his forces for the upcoming confrontation. But just as he began prepping his cavalry reserves, the sounds of steel, magic and screams can easily be heard outside the wooden gates.

They reached the outside of the gates so quickly?

His forces inside the garrison are still unprepared. He'll need to buy himself some time.

Just as he thought it; Flight leader Silea arrives to inform Laverton of her units' readiness.

Laverton should be offended by the preparedness of her unit, as the majority of his crack cavalry was still getting their war horses out of their stables. But that thought is discarded by the necessity of the situation.

"Flight leader Silea." He greeted the young lady. "I need your unit to immediately counterattack the enemy so the rest of our forces are prepared to meet them in battle."

That was slightly misleading, as he has no intention to ride out into unfavorable terrain. But that fact is better left unsaid.

"But sir!" The young flight leader protested. "Attacking them when they are so deep inside the valley is extremely risky as it would be diffi-"

"I understand the risks." Laverton interrupted her to keep her from uttering those words. "That doesn't change the fact that I'm _ordering_ you to attack."

With his words firm and unbending the flight leader gave her commander her acknowledgment and left to prepare her squad.

But it seems Laverton's annoyances didn't want to take a break today as he saw Fiona riding up to him with her personal retinue in tow.

Schooling his outward appearance to one of cold neutrality, he gave the lady a slightly respectful nod of her presence.

"Lady Fiona, you came just in time. Come. We have much to discuss."

Laverton has no intention of sharing any of the glory with her or any other Daein. If given the choice he would've sent her as far away from the battle as possible. Sadly he was given a personal directive from General Jarod himself to keep an eye on her for any 'treasonous' behavior. So he is stuck with her unpleasant company. Until at least the end of the battle.

* * *

Moving quickly through the valley, Grima shot a blast of dark energy right through a Begnion soldier.

So far the attack is going on schedule. Earlier, Micaiah and Tauroneo were able to successfully launch a simultaneous surprise attack upon the guard units overlooking the farmers. This attack successfully eliminated almost all of the guards, excluding a single surviving runner who warned of their impending arrival. A slight setback, but not an unanticipated one.

Or so he thought.

By the time they reached the valley (ahead of schedule he might add) the enemy were 'prepared' in the loosest sense possible. It's clear any sort of proper command structure is simply absent outside of the wooden gate; as men-at-arms were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. And by the time they noticed their existence, their attack (or defense?) was abysmally poor.

Just as Grima was about to go into another tirade of his opponents incompetency, he noticed two figures running up to him.

"Micaiah, Sothe. Anything wrong?" He enquired once the two of them were in hearing distance.

"Not exactly." Micaiah answered with a non-answer. "I'm just wondering what you make of this."

A fair question that he's been asking to himself and Robin. So far, from this early of the battle, they already came to a unified consensus. But critiquing the enemy tactics should be left at a later date.

"So far I'm unimpressed." He vaguely answered. "But if I was impressed by the enemies' tactical and strategic decisions, then we wouldn't have it so easy."

"But this battle isn't close to being over." Reminding the two of their situation. "Once we get through that gate, that's where we should be receiving the bulk of the resistance. Isn't that right Sothe?"

"Indeed, the majority of their forces should be beyond that gate." Sothe dutifully answered.

"Good. Then we should spread the word. No doubt that everyone else has the same feelings as you do Micaiah. So long as we follow the plan we should make through this battle."

But just as Grima finished orders a loud yell caught the three's attention.

"Fliers Incoming."

Spinning around to the front of the battle, Grima noticed in the sky 10 Pegasus riders circling above them, ready to pounce on them.

Normally, a coordinated Pegasus attack would be a devastating assault using their uncanny speed and maneuverability to launch hit-and-run attacks. But this isn't a normal situation. It seems the enemy really wants to break Grima's very low expectations of tactical competence.

"Sending them out now would be suicide!" Sothe breathed out in a disbelieved tone. Micaiah herself looked rather surprised with their appearance as well.

At least Grima wasn't the only one seeing the ludicrousness' of the situation. But just as they appeared, the Pegasus riders separated into 2 equal echelons and moved to begin their attack runs on the flanks of their positions.

"That doesn't matter now!" Grima yelled out to grab both of their attention. "Send out word to everyone to prepare for anti-air combat! Micaiah, take Leonardo and head right. I'll head left with Ilyana. And remember to designate your box."

With acknowledged nods, they separated to move to their respective positions.

Moving through the battlefield, he finally came upon to Ilyana giving a good fight with Zihark as her partner.

"Ilyana!" Catching the gluttonous mages' attention. "We have Pegasus riders inbound!"

"Fliers?" Zihark questioned. "They're attacking now? Here?"

"Yes they are." Grima answered with a bit too much annoyance in his tone. But this is a sudden and tense situation. "So we need to get into position. Zihark cover our backs as well."

Even though this attack will be done in less than favorable conditions, the danger is still relevant as an attack, if not properly dealt with, could still yield losses for them. Losses, which at this stage of the war could prove irreplaceable in the long run.

So Grima -with permission from Robin- borrowed a tactic he used during the 2nd Ylisse-Plegian War. Normally when dealing with any aerial threats; a blanket of projectiles saturating the sky would be done to discourage any aerial attack, this would be the default tactic to use as it is extremely difficult to hit a speedy, high aerial target. But a deterrent isn't an option for Grima, considering his lack of range attackers, which is where Robin's tactic comes into play.

Instead of randomly saturating the big blue sky, a mage or archer will designate an area in the sky or a 'box' where they would only fire into this box alone. This is done to maximize the hit rate of the individual shooter. Combine that with overlapping 'kill boxes' and skilled mages and archers we come up with a formidable wall in the sky with just a small number of range attackers.

Sadly for the fliers, this isn't the only thing going against them.

The Terrain here isn't just disfavorable to sky attacks, but outright hostile to them as well. If the fliers want to conduct their classic pincer maneuver, they would have to hug the cliff face of the mountain making maneuvering outright impossible and predictable.

Soon Grima and Ilyana were able to get their overlapping 'kill boxes' set up and watched as the 5 fliers began to unwittingly fly into their own doom.

Taking a glance at Ilyana, Grima noticed even with the earlier skirmishes, she was still very focused and potent with her magic spells. As a commander, Grima should be relieved with this information, but given everything he knows about her quirky qualities and the new information about how spirits function here, this is something he can't reconcile properly.

"Focus." A gentle but firm voice resonated in Grima's head bringing him back to current events.

For now he'll watch her very carefully.

Narrowing his eyes, he noticed three of the fliers about to cross into his box. He had enough confidence in Ilyana's abilities to take out the other two.

With two breathes, Grima quickly let loose 6 individual dark energy balls into the predicted path of the fliers. This may be overcompensating but he wasn't going to let one get through just because he was overconfident.

Luckily this worry didn't come to pass as 10 seconds pass, he noticed 4 hit their mark as all three fliers began their very short descent to the cliff face.

Looking once again towards Ilyana, Grima noticed she shot out 4 Arcthunder with confirmed hits as her targets began a similar descent.

It was an impressive display of skill and magical ability. This is the reason why Grima was without his Arcthunder tome as to further test her abilities

"Great work Ilyana." He praised as the distant thuds of bodies hitting the ground could be heard in the background. "It's good to see you making good use of that tome."

"Thank you Grima." She honestly smiled to the compliment.

Looking towards Zihark who was protecting their backs, he gave him a silent order in the form of a nod to head back to the front.

He was very confident that Micaiah could handle the other 5 that he didn't need to check up on them.

He was more concerned if the old general didn't let up his attack towards the gate.

Luckily for Grima, unlike the Begnions, he had very competent comrades as all resistance outside of the gate was eliminated with no losses. Tauroneo was also able to successfully suppress the archers atop the gate with just a few Javelins. With that, they were able to regroup at the front of the gate in peace.

With Micaiah back up front, Ilyana and Grima began the process to forcefully break open the wooden gate with a combined spell. Once those gates broke down, the real battle would begin; as the bulk of the garrison should be positioned beyond the gate, backed up with fortified artillery pieces. Hopefully, the speed in which they eliminated all outside resistance to reach their front door should lend them a chance to catch them still unprepared. But even if that doesn't pan out, there is nothing to fear as the plan and its many contingencies would help them.

With a powerful spell; the wooden gates were finally blown off its hinges and Grima got a first look at the situation; and all he could do is smirk madly. The enemy composition and terrain is exactly as reported with no deviances. A mostly cavalry centric force with infantry strewn about in a support role, the Terin River bisecting the battlefield; diminishing the cavalry effectiveness significantly, and the nonsensical positioning of their emplaced scorpion pieces.

Truly, the only thing of note that remotely worried Grima was their Pegasus riders whose very presence necessitated the quick capture of their scorpions to augment their already overstretched ranged units.

The fact the enemy commander would let such a tactical asset go to waste, goes to show where this battle is going.

But until they crossed that road they needed to remain cautious and stick to the plan.

Quickly wiping his smirk, Grima looked to Micaiah for her assent to carry on the operation. With a nod, Grima sprung to action.

"Everyone assigned to General Tauroneo's group move to take the bridge on the west. Everyone else, follow Micaiah to take the scorpion to our immediate right."

Even before Grima finished his orders, everyone sprang into action with gusto as Grima was particularly insistent that everyone understood their roles, intimately.

Running toward the scorpion with Micaiah and Sothe up front, it wasn't difficult to overwhelm their lightly defended position.

The scorpion is a very powerful piece of equipment defined mostly by its unparalleled range to deliver its deadly ordinance. But left alone with little to no support, it's nothing but a more complicated and immobile archer.

With the closest scorpion now secured with Leonardo at the helm, the next stage of the plan should begin.

With the river bisecting the battlefield; the only way to cross the river would be the two bridges that span the river. Currently, the plan dictates that Grima and Micaiah's group secures their side of the bridge only, while Tauroneo and his group cross the river on their side.

Across the river Grima noticed the bulk of the garrison still preparing themselves. He soon spotted what he assumed is the commander running around on his horse trying to get his men into an orderly formation. From the looks of things, he shouldn't expect them to launch a full assault anytime soon.

But if his impression of the commander is correct, then once he realizes what's just across the river. . .

An attack should come, regardless of his soldiers' readiness.

But the lack of readiness isn't the only thing to catch Grimas eye.

In a disciplined formation nearby, a squadron of differently equipped cavalry is standing poised and ready. And at the head of them is a young dark-skinned female knight wearing ornately bright blue armor.

Were these the last minute reinforcement that was hurriedly reported to him?

"Blue armor?" Grima couldn't help say aloud.

"Those are the reinforcements alright." A voice answered him.

Looking to his left, he noticed it was Sothe who originally reported the reinforcements along with Micaiah. It's good to see her out of the open and taking her role as Vice-commander so seriously.

"Yet their equipment is very unlike of that with the standard Begnion equipment?" He posited as he analyzed the potential of these late-arrivals.

"Their armor looks like standard Daein equipment, except with some notable differences." Micaiah contributed aloud.

"Now that you mention it." Sothe began thinking more critically. "Their armor is quite similar to the armor worn three years ago. Do you think they were pressed into service like Aran?"

"It's possible." Grima said, getting where Sothe was thinking. "But why use Daein armor? Even Aran was equipped with Begnion armor?"

"Maybe that is what they had laying around?" Micaiah supplied.

Nodding his head, Grima couldn't find any fault in that logic. It wasn't unheard of the enemy using the equipment of their former enemy to save costs in logistics.

In fact, a good chunk of their own equipment is former Begnion standard stocks they procured in one way or another.

"Take a look at the leader, though." Grima pointed out, still unconvinced. "She's wearing a more ornate Daein armor. No Begnion would wear Daein armor so that means it's a Daein leading a purely Daein unit."

"And?" Sothe snarkly asked.

"It's an interesting fact considering the situation." Grima neutrally said, not letting Sothe's snarky comment get to him.

"Do you think you can take advantage of that fact?" Micaiah asked.

Grima gave Micaiah an impressed look by her question. He only wished he could fulfill her expectations of him.

"Presently? No." He answered, turning away from her as he scanned his surroundings. "Hopefully we can expect an attack so-"

Grima never got to finish his sentence, as he immediately brought out Truth and shot out a quick mass of dark energy to the sky, which intercepted a javelin thrown from the other side of the river. It was a fantastic throw, he had to admit.

From across the river, it was very clear that a squad of Begnion heavy cavalry was making its way towards the bridge with not so friendly intentions. Trailing far behind them he also noticed at least 2 troops of foot infantry making a beeline for the bridge as well.

It seems they finally realized the prize just across the river.

Grima loves it when a plan comes together.

Quickly turning to Micaiah and Sothe, all three acknowledged the upcoming battle and moved to their positions. In this case, Micaiah and Sothe headed towards the bridge to rally what little units they had. Grima is also meant to head to the bridge, but he took a short detour to Leonardo who is currently manning the scorpion.

Once he got there, Leonardo was already making preparations to fire his next shot.

"Leonardo! Make sure to aim at those who are crossing or going to cross the bridge." He clarified to the archer. "Don't bother with those who crossed it."

"Got it." The archer replied, not looking to Grima but still very aware of what was said to him. "Not to that I appreciate your company, but why are you here Grima?"

"Just wanted to take a quick peak with Tauroneo's Group." He answered the archer.

He wasn't to one to completely micro-manage his colleagues, but he was mostly curious of how well the General operates. From what he could see, everything seems to be on schedule as the old General already crossed their bridge.

Once confirming this fact, he bade farewell to Leonardo and made his way to the bridge. He could already see that Begnion cavalry charge faltered from the several dead Begnion riders and horses on this side of the bridge, who were sporting a wide variety of magical and metal wounds.

Despite Micaiah commanding the smaller of the two groups; which only consists of a handful of fighters, besides themselves, they were practically ruthless. Their deadly effectiveness couldn't be more apparent as they stubbornly held their ground, forcing the cavalry to run through a bottleneck of a bridge, turning it into a target rich zone where the experienced fighters happily exploited.

By the time Grima reached the thick of the fighting, the Begnion cavalry charge lost all momentum and cohesion. The reinforcing footmen would only add to the woes of the surviving cavalrymen, as when they finally reached their side of the bridge, they blocked the only route of a retreat, effectively trapping the cavalry between a rock and a hard place.

Shooting out another blast of dark energy to fell the last cavalryman, a small lull appeared as the infantry made slow progress crossing the bridge, as they had to deal with the harrying fire from Leonardo on the scorpion.

Grima began to look over everyone for any serious injuries or exhaustion.

Aran and Meg, who took the brunt of the initial charge were tired and scuffed up a bit, but nothing that Laura couldn't quickly fix. Volug and Nolan are also a bit haggard, but nowhere near the point of needing a checkup. Leonardo should be fine with Edward acting as his bodyguard and as his only reserve. While anyone he didn't see is currently in Tauroneo's group.

Approving of their readiness, Grima headed to the last two to be checked. Sothe and Micaiah's condition are similar to that of himself. A bit out of breathe, but still raring for a go. But judging from Sothe's hard look he was giving him, he didn't exactly share the same feelings.

"Is exposing Micaiah like this really necessary?" Sothe said.

Grima could only roll his eyes in response to his question. This wasn't the first time he brought up this specific grievance, and most certainly wouldn't be the last as most of his grievances always point back to Micaiah.

Just when Grima was about to go off into another lecture, Micaiah brought up her hand to let her take care of this. This sudden movement wasn't lost on Sothe, as he straightened his shoulders in anticipation to what she was about to say.

"Sothe. I understand your concerns with my safety "Micaiah gave a momentary pause for dramatic effect "but I need you to drop it."

There was an awkward pause that engulfed the three of them, as Micaiah gave Sothe a surprisingly intimidating glare. Sothe wasn't entirely cowed by her demands, but was nonetheless taken off guard with the sudden bluntness. Meanwhile, Grima couldn't help but be amused by what was happening in front of him.

Sothe was stating the same exact concerns when he first heard of the plan; even though Grima took the time to carefully explain and assure him of Micaiah's safety. Sothe still stubbornly parroted these same concerns, much to Grima's annoyance. So seeing him getting his comeuppance, was very satisfying.

Sadly this moment wouldn't last, as another mental tug in Grima's head reminded him of the impending assault.

"Sorry to cut in" Grima catching both of their attentions. "But it seems our break is over." Pointing at the bridge just as a mass of infantry has just crossed over 2/3 of the bridge.

An understanding nod was exchanged between the two as they broke off into a sprint to hold back the enemy. This exchange did surprise Grima, but he was sure this was a temporary moratorium to the argument so once things calm down he expects Sothe to make his complaints known once again.

But now Grima needs to concentrate on the battle in front of him. Making sure his grip on Truth was to his liking, he made a dash following behind the two as he conversed with Robin on the best way to approach this.

Maybe he needs to bring out Edward from the reserve.

* * *

Fiona couldn't help, but be both impressed and disappointed to the battle she was witnessing. The Daein Liberation Army, which she was assured on many occasions; was a ragtag group of bandits who would be easily stamped out in any serious battle; are conducting themselves rather impressively. Ragtag she would concede, but it was clear they operated themselves with discipline and with experienced tactical nuance. This was clearly shown in the battle; the DLA positioned themselves into an advantageous position. Instead of securing the opposite side of the bridge, they dug themselves in on their side of the bridge waiting for the enemy to funnel themselves in an orderly and slow process which enhances the effectiveness of their small numbers. A very smart but very careful tactic to take advantage of the terrain while covering their weakness.

The same cannot be said to the Begnions. Sure, they fought admirably and with distinction, like lions, but it is clear these lions are led by donkeys. Right now, Laverton is sending men to their certain slaughter. And for what? Time? He'll just send the rest of them to do exactly the same thing as the previous group with little change.

Fiona did notice among the defenders across the river was the rumored silver-haired maiden. She was accompanied with only a small group of soldiers besides herself, holding their position. A tempting target for sure, but it was clear now that forcing their way to her would end in failure, as the remnants of the initial attack were finally pushed out of the bridge proper.

So predictably, when word reached Laverton that the men he sent were crushed handily, he was irate and blamed them for the loss of life instead of his own poor decisions. But his predictable reaction soon morphed into an uncharacteristically mischievous smirk. The little time she interacted with the man gave her the impression he was a prideful, by the book commander with a long list of prejudiced and xenophobic views with little room for imagination.

So when she saw that gleeful smile, she couldn't comprehend what kind of plan he could've cooked up.

Whatever his plan, at the very least it seems he realized throwing more soldiers' lives would be wasteful and ordered an end to all attacks, for now.

* * *

With one final blast of Thani, courtesy of Micaiah, the Begnion infantry's ill-conceived attack was finally turned into a disorganized rout, giving their group reprieve they needed. Grima knew he was walking a very fine line with the just making use of the bare minimum of fighters, something Sothe will never let go, but he's clever enough to stack the odds in their favor so heavily to minimize the risks.

But even with a full-hand, Grima was forced to bring Edward out –his only reserve- to fill in gaps in their formation. Not a promising sign, but nonetheless a manageable one so long as the other parts of the plan is on schedule.

Just as he finished the thought, Grima heard the strong beats of a pair of wings. Turning around he found the striking red-haired, red armored dracoknight atop her green-scaled wyvern. Her appearance didn't just catch Grima's attention, but Micaiah and Sothe's as well as they stood by Grima to hear what the dracoknight had to say.

"Micaiah. Grima. I'm here to report that General Tauroneo is successful in carrying out his objectives. He is also prepared to move into the next phase of the plan." Short, crisp and on point were Jill's words.

Grima's knowing smirk returned for the third time today as he mentally gone through the timetable to double check if they were indeed on schedule. His smirk only grew wider when he was satisfied that everything is going as planned.

The plan was quite simple. Micaiah would lead a small group of experienced fighters' right to the face of the enemy, purposely exposing themselves as a small, tempting target. While the enemy is too busy trying to unpack the present on their front door, the general will lead the rest of their army in a flanking maneuver to the Begnions unprotected rear. A classic hammer and anvil tactic, in which Micaiah would act as the anvil and Tauroneo the hammer.

A simple plan that hinged on the stereotypical arrogance of the Begnion commander along with the addition of tunnel-vision with the prospect of a big catch (Micaiah).

And the Begnion commander fell for it, hook, line and sinker.

Looking towards Micaiah, he noticed her face showed a clear relief with how well the plan is progressing.

Grima at least had some tact to not look towards Sothe for his 'opinion'.

But before he could voice any sort of response a very loud and gruff sounding voice caught everyone's attention.

Just across the river a large formation of cavalry stood in attention and at its head was what could only be the commanding officer of the garrison. Interestingly, the Daein auxiliary cavalry force is also present in the formation.

"I speak once again; I wish to speak with the so-called silver-haired maiden." The commanding officer repeated.

Turning to said silver-haired maiden, Grima gave her a questioning look on how to proceed.

Micaiah response was only to shrug her shoulders, too confused to give any sort of proper response. But Grima clearly understood she was more than willing to hear what he had to say.

Grima may give the orders during battles, like now, but Micaiah is his superior and he would need to defer to her in these negotiation scenarios.

Besides, the more time they waste here means a lesser chance of them noticing Tauroneo sneaking up behind them. So other than unconditional surrender; nothing he could say will have any bearing of the climax of this battle.

Bringing herself to the forefront of their 'little formation', Micaiah caught the attention of everyone present.

"I am Micaiah the silver-haired maiden. Vice-Commander of the Daein Liberation Army." She declared out with dignity that any respectable commanding officer should have. "To whom I am speaking to?"

Honestly, Grima is quite amazed by how quickly she could summon up confidence and authority. If Grima didn't know better, he would mistake this Micaiah as a fake. But he does know better; he knows this is an honest attempt to project a more confident Micaiah, and its effectiveness almost terrifies Grima.

"So it's really you." Laverton quietly spoke more to himself.

"I am Major Laverton, commander of the Terin Military Garrison." Properly introducing himself in a loud and boastful manner.

"You are to cease any and all hostile actions immediately and to properly surrender yourselves to Begnion soldiers, effective immediately. This is your final warning."

Grima couldn't help but release a derisive snort to his 'demands'. It's clear the Begnion position has become unfavorable as their absolute numerical superiority has been reduced significantly, to near equal parity to the DLA.

So it's clear whatever Laverton is aiming for is simply to stall for time. Which Grima is more than welcome to give him, so long as he keeps his attention on the anvil in front of him; instead of the hammer behind him.

So he decided to lay back (metaphorically of course) and let Micaiah do her job as the 'silver-haired maiden'. He'll need to make sure to not let Micaiah down on this.

Yet he is acutely aware that he couldn't send out Jill with his new orders as that could easily be interpreted as a hostile action and lead to the collapse of the 'negotiations' and a return of open battle. Hopefully Tauroneo is perceptive and aggressive enough to initiate his hammer attack.

Grima was so engrossed with his own thoughts; he utterly failed to notice the developments of the 'negotiations' he dismissed earlier. It took a mental shout from Robin to break his musing to finally realize the tensed, angry and most of all shocked expressions of his comrades.

Across the river a group of civilians were being paraded in front of them. They numbered no less than twelve and included only boys and men of various ages, yet most of the men showed signs of sickness or injury.

"This is your final warning!" Laverton voice booming once again, this time with a victorious smirk on his face. "Cease at once, or we will execute these fifth columnists. The choice is yours."

Grima gritted his teeth as his mind went into overdrive with the sudden turn of events. Is he this desperate to resort to these tactics? He may be in a rough spot, but none of this constitutes to being pushed into a corner. He still retained local numerical superiority. So was this his objective the entire time?

Irrelevant.

But he should've been prepared for a possible hostage situation. The whole point of securing the field workers outside the camp was to prevent this very scenario (also collateral damage). He should've been more dutifully in keeping an eye to all of the prisoners' whereabouts inside and outside the camp. Even going so far as to keep an accurate ledger of the entire camp population.

Foolish.

He may have confidence on his comrade's abilities in scouting and observations, but there is no way they could've gotten an accurate count unless they somehow got their hands on their ledgers. Which would be impossible as infiltrations is completely outside of their skillsets.

There is no doubt about it, Grima is furious and no amount of over analyzation could distract him from the reality of the situation. He was hoping this could've been avoided, especially this early. But for the sake of the movement as a whole, sacrifices need to be made.

All the bridges he built will certainly be called into question, but so long as-

But just as Grima resigned himself to the situation he heard the words that shouldn't have been said.

"Very well, everyone lay down your weapons." The familiar voice said in a soft feminine tone.

She wouldn't! She couldn't!

But his listening did not deceive him as his eyes confirmed the reality of the situation as he clearly see's Micaiah's personal tome, 'Thani', lay at her feet from being dropped. Already, he could see Edward and Nolan follow Micaiah's example. Even Sothe dropped his knives. SOTHE! The over-protective bodyguard voluntarily disarming himself.

So witnessing this stupidity first hand, Grima's usual calculated coolness cracked and imploded on its self as his internalized frustrations and anger got the better of him.

Taking immediate action, he swung his arm out directing his index finger straight toward the dumbfounded Dracoknight and spoke with a barely measured, but commanding tone that demanded to be obeyed.

"Delay that order!"

From the look of Grima's face, it's clear that he is absolutely livid. But Jill couldn't get a proper read from the tacticians face; in fact he didn't even bother to look at her when he issued that order to her. Grima instead opted to keep his irritated gaze towards Micaiah and Micaiah alone.

His breathing heavy, his eyes sharp, his gaze never once failing to give any impression of weakness. All of this, reserved for the light mage alone.

But what really threw Jill through a loop was the recipient of the scowl wasn't just taking it, but dishing out one of her own.

Micaiah's face was equally stone-faced as she stared down his blood-red eyes with her own golden variety. Her usual gentleness now replaced with the hardness of that of a commanding officer.

It was amazing how either one of them could tolerate the harshness of the glares they were exchanging. But this tension wasn't lost to everyone witnessing this silent exchange; as they all held their breath, not making a sound, waiting for the first person to act.

It was Grima who made the first movement as he gotten tired of pointing at Jill. But the one who spoke first was Micaiah as she took Grima putting his arm to rest as the signal to speak.

"Throw down your tome, Grima. That's an order." Micaiah stated with an iciness that froze everyone in hearing distance.

Even Robin, from the inside of Grima was making noises closer to that of his namesake than that of a human-being.

Grima's reaction was much more subdued, as only his left eyelid twitched. Inside he was seething from the sheer gall of pulling the rank card on him.

Did she not care for the revolution of Daein? Because this is great way for it to crash and burn. Grima was just about to angrily articulate such thoughts (Among other things). But he paused for a split second when he noticed Micaiah's hard look, softened ever so slightly.

"I need you to trust my judgment, Grima. Just like how I trust yours." She softly pleaded.

The sudden turn around has thrown Grima completely off-balanced. He is still understandably furious with her rash actions. But now there is genuine doubt that this isn't a spur-in-the-moment decision.

So silence once again reigned supreme between the two as no one dared make a noise as Grima thought long and hard about Micaiah's 'order'; even Robin is waiting with bated breath for the outcome.

Grima, surprisingly, for his part isn't so much weighing the pros and cons of the possible outcomes of the situation, but is instead concentrating on the girl in front of him. More specifically her eyes.

The hardness he first witnessed when they first started their staring contest is still present. But the intensity has surely dropped and was instead replaced with a look of trust and expectation. Like she was just waiting for him to make the right choice.

And he knew full well what that choice she is expecting.

Time seemed to finally clocked forward as Grima closed his eyes and took one big exasperated breathe of air. When he opened his eyes, he stared back to Micaiah with an unreadable blank stare and surprisingly dropped his tome.

Everyone seemed to exhale out a breath they seemingly held in as they all begin to –relatively- relax to the situation. Even Micaiah visibly relaxed with Grima's actions.

Grima on the other hand didn't exactly share these feelings of relief; as instead he kept his blank face pointedly away from Micaiah. A snub that besides the choice he made, he isn't 100% on board on this plan; which wasn't entirely lost on Micaiah or Sothe.

Regardless, this is the moment that whatever Micaiah had on mind, to happen. But it sure as hell isn't starting on this side of the river. So that is where Grima is facing, across the river where the hostages and their enemy are.

So far, only the standard things transpired across the river. Cackling laughter about his 'hard fought' victory, how great a military commander he is, and what would happen to them now, blah blah blah. Nothing particularly surprising or original. Grima would've laughed out loud at how stereotypical Laverton is acting; if it weren't for the fact he is still peeved that this is his reality now.

But things took turn to the worst, when he immediately ordered the execution of the hostages. This didn't surprise Grima as he never viewed Laverton of having a single ounce of honor in him; so seeing him blatantly renege his side of the deal was only met with a slight scowl on his face.

Grima then noticed in the corner of his eye a group of riders move to the position of the hostages. At first he thought they were the executioners, but this idea was immediately discarded as they instead began to free the hostages from their bindings and secure them as something precious.

Upon closer scrutiny, the riders were the same exact riders that he speculated were Daein.

This realization dawned on him to Micaiah's intention. Looking toward the golden eyed girl, he found she had a satisfying look on her face.

"Was this your plan the whole time?" He asked the question he knew the answer to already, but he wanted to hear her say the words.

"Yes." Micaiah simply answered.

Grima wanted to ask her how she came to such a conclusion. Or when. But he sucked in any question as he immediately whipped out his Levin sword that was still left on his person, and fired a bolt out toward a Begnion rider who was making a charge to a distracted Daein rider carrying a hostage.

"Everyone! Hear my voice!" Grima hollered out to the rest of the group. "Pick up your weapons and prepare to cross the bridge! They'll need our help!"

Like clockwork, everyone began to reacquaint themselves with their dropped weapons and awaited their coming orders.

A precarious situation where the lives of not just the hostages, but also the recent defectors, hanged on the balance. Any sort of careful planning is thrown right out the window by how quickly the situation is developing. Right now they had to be decisive and stick to as much of the original plan as possible.

"Jill, as our only flier I need you across as well." Grima ordered.

"But what about General Tauroneo?" Jill pointed out.

"Your unique skill-set are more useful here." Grima plainly said. "Besides, I doubt he needs 'my' permission to get involved. He knows what's at stake."

With her understanding nod, Grima didn't speak anymore words as he pointed his Levin sword across the river to initiate their charge.

* * *

Sweating profusely, with grime and blood staining his usually immaculate armor; Laverton cursed inwardly.

He, along with a small number of his guard was able to extricate themselves from the bloody melee. Losing their horses due to the dracoknights wyvern, they were deprived a quick means of escape.

But the losses of their mounts were the least of Lavertons concerns.

'He lost! Terribly. Not only has Terin fallen, but Marado as well. General Jarod's careful plan of strangling the insurgents' dry of supplies has fallen apart. And it's entirely his fault.

It isn't completely his fault. He was given subpar units to command. To make it worst, infiltrators and traitors got into the camp and destroyed his own carefully laid out plans.

But not all has been lost. If he can warn General Jarod of what happened here, they could plan countermeasures to deal with the insurgents' future deceptions.

Nodding to himself of this new plan, Laverton turned to make his getaway. But he, along his remaining guard froze at what they saw.

The previously unseen second group of Daein soldiers had made their ways to Laverton's rear. They were led by a large white-armored knight, who Laverton recognized by the wanted posters. General Tauroneo, former rider of Daein has arrived.

This spelt the definite end for Laverton.

Even if he somehow turned the rest of his forces to face this new enemy, they were simply to battered and demoralized to put up any reasonable resistance.

Laverton may be many things; a complete coward isn't one of them.

Brandishing his dirtied spear, Laverton yelled a loud battle cry to energize his remaining guard.

Leading the charge, he and his men charged face first to meet the former rider.

If this is to be his last bout, it shall be a glorious one.

* * *

"So that is what became of him?" Grima enquired.

"Indeed." Tauroneo calmly answered. "He and his remaining guard charged us and were swiftly dealt with."

"I see." Grima blandly answered. Too distracted with overseeing the battlefield cleanup.

If this lack of attentiveness to the conversation offended the old general, he didn't show it as he continued on.

"He died a soldier's death, an honorable death." The general mused as he looked at the same landscape Grima is so fixated with.

"Some would say that's too good for him." Grima posited.

"Would some of those be the hostages you rescued?"

"You know?" Grima asked giving the general a meaningful look.

"I overheard Jill talking about it." Simply answering Grima's curiosity.

"When did she find the time to talk?" Raising his eyebrow in genuine interest.

"When she was conversing with Zihark." Returning Grima's look with his own raised eyebrow.

Grima for his part looked away and examined the terrain in front of him which was littered with the bodies of the former garrison. Man and beast.

"Maybe I should have her and her wyvern pile all the dead horses." He finally stated after a short pause.

Tauroneo for his part gave off a loud cackle to Grima's joke.

"Have fun with that then." Finally calming down from his laughter. "You know, I've pegged you as a risk taker, but feigning surrender is something I didn't expect."

"Well you're wrong in one regard. It wasn't my idea. It was Micaiah's." Grima answered back.

"I didn't want to believe that was the case." Tauroneo said becoming more serious. "Didn't expect the lass to have it in her."

"It was bound to happen given the circumstances. Only wished I had more time to prepare." Grima blandly answered.

"You know." Tauroneo began. "Jill didn't paint the whole decision as being so harmonious."

When Grima didn't respond, Tauroneo decided to press on.

"She described the situation as" Pausing a second to come up with the best word. "Contentious."

A humorless chuckle escaped Grima's lips as a preface to his words.

"That's a good descriptor, but that doesn't begin to describe the true depths of the situation."

"No matter, she took a calculated risk that in the end, paid in dividends." The white general said. Any other person would've taken it as praise, but for Tauroneo and Grima, it was a challenge.

Grima isn't daft enough to not see the provocation in his tone, but neither is he in the mood to take this laying down.

"Calculated?" Grima repeated, eyeing the general with a critical eye. "There is nothing calculated about it. It was a decision built on a gut-feeling."

"Aren't you being a bit harsh?" Hoping to instill some calm, but he was still curious where this could lead. "Do remember she is a seer."

"Congratulations, she's a prophet!" Grima sarcastically grandstanded. "We might as well just remove any and all considerations to tactical and logistical planning since it's just going to be superseded by simple feelings."

"Is that your problem?" Tauroneo bluntly asked.

"Yes!" He answered a bit too quickly as he reeled back to recompose himself. "I understand she holds the people in high regard, but putting so much reliance on a gut feeling, that it becomes a crutch is simply too dangerous to tolerate."

"Rather harsh words, Grima." Tauroneo succinctly said, a bit taken aback with the exchange.

Another humorless chuckle from Grima got the old man's attention.

"You presume to much, General. For all my grievances, I am still a Strategos and I must give praise where it is due." He said giving the general a meaningful smirk. "She had a 'plan' for the problem in front of us and when I challenged her she didn't back away and forced me to back down."

"Is that why you agreed?" Tauroneo asked, making sure he got it right. "Because she has spunk?"

"Decisive would be the better word." Grima amended. "And that isn't the only reason."

"Oh?"

"If this revolution is to succeed, we must give the appearance of a united front. So publically disagreeing with her would've been bad in the long term."

"Even if it leads to failure?" He asked.

Nodding his head. "We either hang together, or we hang separately."

"Rather morbid end. Hopefully that wouldn't come to pass." Tauroneo chuckled to himself.

"Only if we fail." Grima said looking back to the landscape. "So it's worth reiterating that I'm only upset with how she came to her decision, not the contents of said decision. And more importantly thanks to Micaiah's little gambit; not only have we secured Terin, but Marado as well, thanks to the defection of Lady Fiona."

"Lady Fiona." Nodding his head as he fondly remembered a time not so long ago.

"Do you know her?" Grima asked as he noticed the nostalgic tone in his words.

"Know her? I wouldn't say so." Tauroneo answered. "But I do know her father."

"Her father?" Grima asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Indeed, He and I were colleagues a long time ago."

"Lanvega, once a member of Daein Four Riders and Lord of Marado." Grima spoke out as if he was reading aloud from a book.

"You know?" He asked, surprised he could name his old friend so quickly.

"Hardly." Grima truthfully answered. "His name popped up when I was researching potential targets for our first offensive; it wasn't anything in-depth, but it did note his service as one of the Four Riders."

"That's all?" Tauroneo doubtfully asked.

"I could sing the diddle of the famous Four Riders if you want?" Grima teased with a devilish smile.

"Well I think it's about time we make our separate ways." Tauroneo quickly said, finding it the time to retreat. "Don't want you to give superfluous orders to Jill or Zihark."

"You don't want to meet Lady Fiona with me?" Grima asked, in a half serious/half teasing tone.

"I can reminisce with her at a later date, good day Grima." Tauroneo said finally taking his leave.

With a good distance between the two, Tauroneo finally released his impressed smirk he held back from his conversations with Grima.

When he got word he will be tutoring the young prince, he was very concerned as he knew little of the kind of values Grima held. Sure, he has a positive opinion of the man; he found his tactical and strategic mind to be brilliant and most of all he's nothing like Izuka. But his concerns still remained as Grima was-is still a large unknown.

But the time he spent with him preparing for this attack enlightened him to parts of Grima's values that greatly impressed him.

His strong work ethic and his insistence of barring Izuka into their strategy meetings translated he valued ability and merit above that of titles.

And this recent conversation only strengthened his opinion of the tactician. He revealed his willingness to challenge his superiors; sure he eventually fell in line, but only after he considered the wider implications of his actions which tells Tauroneo he was no yes man, but someone who understands what they are trying to achieve and the dedication to accomplish that cause.

There still remain some concerns, but with his greatest concerns proven to be unwarranted, Tauroneo is left confident of Grima's abilities to tutor the young prince.

With no one to converse to, Grima found it high time to have that chat with Micaiah.

He didn't need to look for long as he instantly found the back of the Vice-Commander along with her ever-present shadow conversing with the leader of the defectors. Lady Fiona.

Lady Fiona seemed to have indicated someone was coming up behind the two as they each turned around to see who it was.

Grima didn't need a clairvoyant to know Sothe isn't happy with Grima right now so he decided to do the tactful thing and move to Sothe's left to put him in between himself and Micaiah to at least ease his mind.

Micaiah on other hand looked like she was surprised with his presence. He wouldn't blame her.

This sadly created an awkward situation for the four of them as whatever conversation they had before he shown up, simply stopped.

"Lady Fiona, it's an honor to meet you like this." Grima said, extending out his hand in greetings.

A bit hesitant, she eventually reciprocated the gesture.

"I personally don't see how it's an honor; sir?"

"Grima. Just Grima. And it is an honor." Grima reiterated. "It's your actions that saved the lives of those civilians. You should be commended."

"I only did what's right." She averted, but she was clearly embarrassed with his straight forward praise. "In fact I should be honored; it's good to meet the tactician who ran circles around Laverton."

"Strategos." He corrected her, much to her confusion. "And it was a group effort, both Micaiah and General Tauroneo were instrumental in planning this attack."

"So it's true, Tauroneo is really here." Fiona said.

"Indeed" Grima confirmed. "I just spoke with him not to long ago, I believe he went over to check on Jill and Zihark."

"It's been too long since I've met Tauroneo." Fiona said nostalgically. "If you can excuse me, I'll like to speak with him."

"It's no problem, Lady Fiona." Micaiah diplomatically assured her.

Taking her leave, Fiona moved to find her father's friend, leaving the three of them in another awkward silence.

It might not have been subtle, but Grima needed this time to lay down where their relationship would go from here. For everything he said to Tauroneo, he spoke honestly and had little intentions of misleading the man. But Grima needs to be honest with himself. From this point onward, Grima cannot treat Micaiah in the same manner as before.

It would be nice if they could return to a time before the incident, but he isn't so confident of this happening. He simply could not trust Micaiah to not act so rashly and unpredictable in the future, and jeopardize all of their hard work; sadly this fact alone will eventually poison their personal relationship.

But if he could establish their respective boundaries now; their working relationship would be left unaffected.

"Grima." He heard, catching himself off guard as he was too busy musing with himself. He really needs to stop that.

It seems it was Micaiah who called out his name as she was looking at him with an intense stare. But as suddenly as he saw her face, it completely disappeared as it was quickly replaced with the back of her head. For the observant Grima it only took 2 quick blinks for him to realize she was bowing her head to him.

"Grima, I want to apologize for my actions today. You're my Strategos, I should've been more open with my intentions, especially when the stakes were so high today."

Even with the sudden blindside, Grima took the time to take a peek to her green-haired bodyguard. He noticed the look he was giving to Grima was one 'daring' him to reject her. It seems she really is taking her words to heart and consulting those around her of her decisions.

Shaking his head, Grima didn't need a lot of time too completely dump his previous plans.

"Raise your head Micaiah; it's really unbecoming of you." He tiredly said.

Perking up with his positive words, Micaiah slowly straightened her posture, but still remained hesitant as if confused with Grima's actions.

"You really have no reason to apologize to me; especially when your gambit went so well." He calmly stated.

"But I completely went over your plan and authority." She reasoned. "I even risked the whole revolution without your input."

"Admittedly, you did take me by surprise, but nonetheless the choices you made is well within your rights as Vice-Commander." He reassured her.

Really, it's rather humorous how they each take each other by surprise.

"But I should've at least waited for you to come up with a plan." She said, still unbelieving with how much she is getting away with.

"And I'm glad you didn't. You really saved me from making a terrible decision." He said, confusing not only Micaiah but Sothe as well.

"Do you know what I would've done?" He paused, waiting for their curious nods.

"Nothing."

The only outward reactions they gave were there wide eyes and quick blinks.

"The situation was simply that bad." He clinically said, continuing with his explanation. "Every option would've gone against the plan to such a degree it threatened to unravel our already precarious position. So doing nothing and allowing Laverton to execute those hostages was the preferable alternative."

There was a slight pause as the two of them took the time to fully digest his revelations. It was finally Sothe who broke the silence. "I didn't realize you could be that heartless, Grima."

Grima couldn't help but snort with Sothe's conclusions. It also appears that Micaiah doesn't appreciate his words as she gave him a very dirty look. With this silent rebuke, Sothe bowed his head in apology. He could at least appreciate that she didn't think so lowly of him.

"Be it as it may, it would be beneficial for the both of us if we properly communicate our intentions in the future." Grima diplomatically said.

"Is that really it?" Micaiah questioned, still unsure.

"If you want me to be upset for a bit longer, I'll be happy to indulge." He teased with a slight smirk.

"No, that would be quite alright." Micaiah happily said.

"Good." Grima said, quite satisfied with the results.

An unexpected development, but he really wasn't upset as this is Micaiah he's dealing with.

Very quickly, the tense atmosphere disappeared as the conversation evolved to something a lot more mundane. Sothe even cut in a more formal apology for his earlier words which Grima accepted wholeheartedly as he never took any real offense.

By the end of the conversation, Grima was able to leave Micaiah into an embarrassed mess as he loudly proclaimed her achievements and her seer abilities to the nearby Marado soldiers.

He foresaw by the time they reached camp, she will be inundated with well-wishers and admirers for her recent triumphs, much to Sothe's chagrin.

* * *

 **A/N 10,001 words, that's a lot. So all those who reached this far. I beg of you, please leave a review on your current feelings. Upset? Mad? Impressed? Anything! So long as it's constructive.** **Also send word if the formatting is a bit funky as the upload screwed with some stuff and I'm not sure if I got everything.**


	6. Chapter 5 by 5 Inbetween Stories

**It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about the delay and double sorry for not releasing the next full chapter. I've been working on chapter 6 for a while and it's only been a mess of a draft. I won't get into details but I got around 9000 words and have probably another 4000 to go, barring revisions. So don't expect a full chapter till next year.**

 **In the meantime have this little intermission of ideas I couldn't put into the main chapters**

* * *

 **Chapter 5.5 Other Stories**

* * *

In a loud clattering of metal clashing metal, the two sides attempted to overwhelm the other in a show of strength. When it became obvious a stalemate is all but inevitable, the two sides each made a tactical retreat to reassess the situation.

On one side; Zihark stood waiting. He was confident he would carry the match and his stance showed it. His sword pointed downward leaving his body from the waist up full of openings, but this was a ruse to catch the enemy where he least expects it.

Yet this deception failed as his opponent was no fool,, and he knows it well. He may look vulnerable, but he was wearily watching his opponent with an appraising eye. He is known to be wily and use unconventional tactics to level the playing fields. So he watched.

On the other side: Grima weighed his options. He is in a situation where he could use none of his magical abilities against someone who for all intents and purposes is a sword-master. Brute force; while within his abilities would be just poor form and difficult to explain. Deception; while catching him off guard, failed to produce any meaningful results. Victory looked remote, but an orange flash in the corner of his eye brought him an idea. A devious idea.

Seizing the initiative, Grima lunged forward taking the blue-haired sword-master by surprise.

Locking swords once again and faces less than an arms-length away, Zihark gave the tactician a quizzical look.

"Head on? You're much more forward today."

"I just thought you deserved no less." Grima struggling to keep up.

Reeling back his weapon, Grima attempted an under-hand strike which was once again met with another block.

"I mean that's what you've been offering to our thunder-sage, right?" He whispered to the sword-master.

The reaction was an instant one. In one swift movement, Zihark was able to render Grima from a standing position to a laying position in a single breath. Though most physical injuries would do no harm due to his dragon skin, he was nonetheless disoriented due to the sudden change of his spatial area.

"Looks like I found your button." Grima said as he began to pick himself up.

"Seems you did." He neutrally replied

"Don't worry Zihark, I learned my lesson."

"That would be wise." Zihark plainly said.

Behind Zihark, another swordsman was standing there, or at least trying to stand as he was too busy laughing at the scene he just witnessed.

"You got laid out Grima!" Edward barely wheezed out.

"Is that a volunteer I hear?" Zihark said aloud to no one in particular.

"It's not the volunteer you were expecting." Zihark caught what the recovering tactician said. Perplexed with the slight smirk he was giving off, he turned around to meet what he was looking. Upon eye-contact a nervous sweat fell from the side of his face as he spoke low what he saw.

"Meg?"

"Meg!" Their tactician beckoned the shy armored warrior over. "Zihark needs a partner so why don't you take my place?"

Zihark looked at the two of them with a dumbfounded face. He has nothing against the large woman, but the misunderstanding she has with him left him in an awk-.

His eye's widened at the realization that somehow, Grima has knowledge of Meg's assumption of their relationship.

But his reaction was slow. By the time he could blink he saw Meg holding the practice sword Grima was using as his figure walked by him.

"I insist. Besides, old Zihark needs a reliable partner."

Walking away from the two, Grima's own partner spoke up.

"That was rather petty of you." Robin disapprovingly said, as he gave off the mental image of crossing his arms.

"I wouldn't say so. Any and all awkwardness stems from Zihark and the misunderstanding he made by not speaking up." Grima defended himself, to the other person in his head. "If anything I'm giving Zihark the opportunity to explain himself. Nothing will change if he keeps up being awkward."

"Doesn't change the fact the whole reason for this was for that awkward reaction" He accused.

"Perhaps." Grima said not wanting to argue this.

"Hey Grima," Edward called out to the approaching dark mage. "You sure want to let Meg take up your time training?"

"It's fine. I may still need the training, but so does Meg." He rationalized.

"If you say so." Edward shrugged, but his face looked at Grima rather expectantly. "Hey Grima can I ask you a question?"

Looking at Edward with a critical eye, Grima flatly asked the swordsman. "Does it involve the fact my sword shoots lightning?"

Abashed by how transparent he was, Edward nervously laughed out. "I mean . . . Yes?"

Sighing at the answer, Grima at least took solace on the fact he was being honest.

"Alright, hit me."

"Well I'm just wondering where you got it." Asking a rather simple question.

"It was a gift." He simply answered. "And no, I'm not going to lend it to you."

"Oh come on, Grima. Be a pal here." He pleaded with the mage. "This way I could shoot lightning."

"Do you have any magical experience?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No."

"Do you have any experience with ranged weaponry?" Crossing his arms as he knew where this line of questioning was going.

"No."

"Have you ever thrown a rock?"

"Yes." Edward answered, rather insulted with the question.

"Did you hit what you were aiming at?"

"Uhm." Rubbing the back of neck.

"Must I continue?" He plainly said.

"Oh come on, Grima!" Edward's arms flailing around in outrage. "You could-"

But Edward never got to finish his complaining as both of their attentions were redirected to a rather loud squeal coming from the center of the practice grounds.

Said squealing came from a very excited Meg who is quickly egressing from the grounds, leaving a rather befuddled and defeated Zihark.

"What was that about?" Edward asking the obvious question.

"My victory it seems." Grima answered to the confused swords-man.

Well, he could at least keep Ilyana from ever learning what transpired here.

* * *

In rather comfortable lodgings, Grima flipped through papers to distract himself from the awkward situation in front of him. In the room with him are Tauroneo and Jill, who is once again acting as his aide, along with Fiona, their newest recruit. In fact it was Fiona's invitation that brought Grima into the quite homey living quarters of the ruler of Marado.

This was supposed to be a simple debriefing of today's battle by Fiona and her forces which is why only he and the general were in attendance today. But he isn't so blind to the eagerness Fiona has shown in setting up the meeting, especially taking into consideration the last meeting.

"You and your men fought well today." Grima opened.

"Thank you. But credit should also extend to you for your ingenious plan." Fiona returning the compliments.

"It was a rather simple plan." He casually dismissed. "We knew where the enemy would be, so it was a simple affair to properly set-up the trap.

It really was a simple affair. It seems Begnion wanted to punish Marado for the betrayal they've conducted in Terin. So in classic Begnion fashion they sent a force of around 250 riders to cause as much damage to the people of Marado. Unluckily for them and thanks to their well place informants in the countryside; Robin and the others were aware of their purpose and movements and set up a welcoming party in the form of an ambush.

The ambush itself was a rather sordid affair. Once the Begnions travelled into an isolated part of the road they were hit in the vanguard and rear to stop and prevent an escape and from there were promptly eradicated.

And Fiona and her cavalry-troops were instrumental in this regard.

"It was truly a simple affair." Fiona readily agreeing with Grima. "But just as you said, my men and I were invaluable today, much more than couriers and scouts."

Grima closed his eyes as he mentally sighed. He knew where this was going.

"And pray tell; what do they deserve?" He levelly said, but his annoyance slightly bled into his tone.

Fiona carefully contemplated her next words. "Something more than just a support role."

"Then why are telling me this?" He shot out. "It was not and still not my decision to make. Do keep in mind one those who can is also sitting in this room."

He made a point to look at the still silent general as he passively looked on this ongoing disaster of a debriefing.

"That maybe, but your word holds weight among the decision-makers," She pointed out. "If you were speak in favor of an additional role they would at the very least consider it."

It made complete sense to go to him. Even though technically correct his excuses were weak attempts of deflection as he holds wide ranging influence within the upper echelons. Especially compared to the waning influence of Izuka and the unapproachable figure that is the Queen-mother.

But this only served to annoy him further, as this sort of politicking is exactly why he attached himself with Micaiah and not the prince.

"My words hold weight is because it's built on a foundation of analysis and reality, not on the whims and pride of a child." He spat out.

"Grima." Tauroneo speaking for the first time to prevent the already incensed Fiona from responding in kind. "Aren't you taking your words a bit far?"

"And you. I expected more from you." Grima ignoring whatever the general said as he now bore the ire of the tactician. "Didn't you also agree with my conclusions?"

"I did then and still do now." He said neutrally. "But I feel you never took Fiona's grievances seriously, so I only ask you to listen."

Crossing his arms with a huff, he eyed the general as he only calmly looked back.

"I'll consider it." He eventually said. "Only after you answer my curiosities."

The nod from Fiona gave him the go ahead to continue.

"Tell me, why is the daughter of Lanvega so desperate to destroy not only her father's legacy, but her people as well?"

"Grima!" Tauroneo exclaimed, but this went unheeded once again as Grima kept his stare at the young lord in front of him.

"I've been unable to rationalize such behavior. I expected the lady to be appreciative with me sparing her people from the horrors of war. Yet here she is demanding direct participation. So all I ask is why?"

For all of the combative bravado Grima thrown at her, Fiona is able to retain a professional aura around her as she contemplated his question. He honestly couldn't tell if he was disappointed she didn't blow up and prematurely end this debriefing or was relieved she wasn't entirely driven by personal pride.

"I'll be the first to admit that if my father were still alive he would continue his policy of neutrality." Closing her eyes as she took a deep breath. When she opened them Grima was taken aback by the ferocity in her eyes. "But I am not my father and I cannot deny the reality of the situation, especially when it's right in front of you."

"Well said." Grima said evenly, with a hint of approval in his voice. "But that doesn't explain Marado's three years of neutrality and silence."

"Indeed it doesn't." She slowly agreed. "When the Begnions first began its occupation, they at first respected the special rights Marado held, in part for not participating in the Ashnards's War. But as time wore on and the occupation became more tyrannical; they slowly began to erode our privileges and unilaterally imposing their own rules. It would've been a matter of time before Marado became another occupied province."

"Are you meaning to imply that Marado going to war was inevitable?" Raising an eyebrow in interest.

"Implied or not; war did come and so we answered. So it only makes sense we make our contribution." She responded smartly

"And I would argue you are." He lamely retorted.

"It isn't enough when the rest of the country suffers yet Marado is treated relatively well!" She practically shouted out to the surprise of everyone, but she quickly recomposed herself. "If Marado were any other province I would've accepted the roles you've given us wholeheartedly. But Marado isn't like the others. She wasn't deprived of her men or resources; she wasn't humiliated by the local garrisons. She still is spry and focused. Now only waiting."

"That is fine rhetoric." Grima dismissed. "But I find it concerning that detractors would use this as another case of Marado's special treatment. Especially if they think you would be rewarded with your old privileges."

"What I deserve should only be made after the war with considerations of our contributions." She smoothly replied. "And after I fully submit myself to His Grace."

Her last statement dropped like an out of control Arcfire spell.

"Fiona" It seems only the General had the will to respond. "That would mean all of Marado's privileges would end."

Fiona only returned his look with one of pure determination. "As Warden of Marado I understand these consequences fully; and if this is the price to fight for the end of the occupation, then so be it."

Grima looked on passively and studied Fiona's unwavering commitment. It was hard not to admire such an attitude, but Grima still had a job.

"I find your attitude to be commendable, Fiona." Grima finally said. "And so I promise I would reconsider my previous judgment."

Fiona was about to object, but he stayed her words with a motion of his hands.

"Make no mistake of my previous words; if I find no use that directly benefits our cause, then my conclusions remain final and _you will_ _accept it_." He said, sending shivers down his guests with his tone alone. "But taking into consideration your forces effectiveness in the previous action; I may have been too hasty in my decision so I will be reevaluating my past conclusions."

"Will that suffice?"

Fiona thought long and hard before she responded. "That is all I ask, sir Grima."

"I'm no sir." He quickly corrected. "If that is everything, I would like to move on to the after-action report?"

When no one objected he carried on.

"Right, Jill you've been standing there long enough. From your point of view what are your impressions of the battle?"

* * *

In a forest, just at the periphery of the camp, Grima is roaming about as if he had no rhyme or reason for doing. Sure it's not the picture one would think when they imagine the 'Fell Dragon' would be; but he too can enjoy the quiet serenity of the deep woods. In fact, he does have a reason for his aimless behavior.

He is currently looking for the perfect specimen to jump-start his foray into hexing in this world. And a good way to start is to work on something small and simple, the less complicated the better.

So searching in this unspoiled piece of land would eventually produce just enough material to begin-.

 _Somthings' here._

Instantly, Grima took cover by a large tree as he attempted to search for this new presence. It's not unnatural for a new life form to appear and disappear in the brush such as now. Heck, he expected unwanted company to make an attempt to follow him here, but this presence was simply unnatural. So unnatural that his very blood was warned to its sudden appearance.

But before he could even wipe the sudden sweat to his brow, it disappeared. Nothing but the whispers of the forest around him.

Unnerved, he quickly moved to the general direction of this apparition. He finally came upon a small grove with an old collapsed tree in its center.

Surveying the area he noted that besides the tree, nothing of particular of note could be seen except for the scant few daisies flowering in the open growth.

But it wasn't completely devoid; he felt the presence of a tiny creature hiding by the fallen tree and it was moving out of the open.

Soon the small presence turned out to be a small bird. The bird looked quizzically at the mage as it sat on the large tree.

Something as unimportant as this bird would usually lead Grima to continue his search, but an odd familiarity pricked at the back of his head until he finally realized he recognized that bird.

This is the same fat orange bird that occasionally hangs around Micaiah. In fact, from what he remembers, he first met this bird before he even met Micaiah and Sothe.

Stepping closer to the bird; he noted once again how unafraid the bird is to human contact, or at least what it seems to be human. In turn the bird seems to scrutinize the tactician only to then suddenly start hitting the tree it's on with its beak.

The sudden action perplexed him as the bird didn't seem to be the type to use its beak to hammer on bark. When Grima put his hands on the fallen tree, the bird promptly flew away to a branch on a standing tree.

Disappointed he did not find the strange presence, he was about to leave until remembering the whole reason for meandering this woodland in the first place.

Examining the fallen tree; he noted many qualities that prove positive to fine lumber. Grima may not be an expert in the general qualities of timber, but he is quite aware of the types of trees needed in the arcane arts.

So he gave the final test to the long dead tree, he pumped some essence into the tree to see how it would react. To his satisfaction the essence flowed freely through its natural channels making it the perfect specimen.

Finding the best part of the dead tree and making sure there were no prying eyes, Grima quickly cut off a few pieces of lumber with precise hits of his magic. Gently putting away his prize in his sack, he made to retrace his steps back to camp.

But this time he had company, as the bird made to rest on his shoulder as he walked back to camp.

Finding it nice to have agreeable company for a change, Grima spoke aloud his thoughts.

"Didn't Micaiah have a name for you?"

Thinking hard, he came to the answer quickly. "Yune. She called you Yune."

The bird now named Yune only blankly look back at the mage.

"Oh gods, now I'm really talking to myself." The realization finally hitting Grima. "I've finally reached the deep end.

" _I'll argue you never had it in the first place_." Robin the unwanted passenger teased.

" _Shut it_." He mentally shouted. As if it heard, Yune looked at Grima curiously which he only gave a defeated sigh in return.

Luckily, the rest of the trip back to camp was uneventful, and his way to his quarters would've been equally uneventful except for a small crowd developing at the Merchants convoy.

Curious and with bird still in tow, Grima went to investigate to find Nolan at the back-end of the small semi-circle.

"Hey Nolan, what's going on here?" Catching his attention.

"Oh Grima. We're just-." Pausing, as he wanted to make sure he saw what he was witnessing. "Is that a bird on your shoulder?"

Silently cursing himself for the unprofessional blunder, he quickly resolved himself. "Yes, and don't change the subject." He replied indignantly. And for an odd second, he felt the bird also shared in his feelings.

"Right. Well what happened is that Sothe and Jorge got into a . . . disagreement."

Wide eyed by the statement as he understood the dislike the two held for each other, his mind quickly decided to understand this potentially volatile situation.

"How did this start? How many people witness this? What are they doing now!?"

"Calm Grima calm. It wasn't that bad and most people here assume their playing a rather friendly but competitive game." Now looking behind himself towards the inside of the circle.

"Game?" He repeated and following his gaze he noticed they were in fact playing a game.

Both Sothe and Jorge were sitting across each other while keeping a hand on an upside-down mug.

"Liars dice?" He said aloud.

With a confirmed nod from Nolan, he gave a closer look of the scene and noticed Aran and Laura standing across each other behind the players; most likely acting as officials to prevent any cheating.

"How long have they've been going at it?" Grima asked.

"Awhile. Jorge has two dice compared to Sothe single dice. It's also Sothe's turn."

"So what did they wager?"

"Other than bragging rights? Not much."

"A rather pointless game then." Grima dismissed. He then turned around and started walking back to his tent with his bird friend in tow. "Tell me when Sothe loses."

Well if anyone was to gain from this, he might as well.

* * *

It was late. He probably missed dinner by 3-4 hours by his estimations. On the bright side his paperwork is eighty-percent finished and his personal tent holds at least 3 weeks of dried rations, so he won't get hungry.

Sadly fatigue is getting the best of him. He may be a mutt with divine-dragon blood flowing through him, which imparts him enhanced abilities and strengths that far exceeds that of any normal human. But the constant drudgery of paperwork would challenge even a god. So it would be good to take a small break to stretch his arms.

Just as he leaned on the back of his chair to stretch a new presence entered the domain of his tent without his say.

Surprised at the lack of communication, Grima was about to give them a verbal discipline. But he held his tongue as he didn't see a person enter his tent. Instead a large wolf stood in the middle of his quarters without a care in the world.

"Volug?" He asked aloud.

He didn't need an answer as he was clearly Volug, but he was nonetheless unnerved by the silent treatment he was giving him.

Without a prompt whatsoever, Volug slowly made his way towards his desk and with a single circle spin; laid himself down at the foot of his desk.

" _Volug? Are you comfortable their?_ " He asked in the Ancient tongue, unsure with both Volug's behavior and the form of the question itself.

It was strange behavior for sure as Volug never just silently rested in his quarters before, let alone in his wolf form as he made it clear to all three Laguz they have privacy in his tent.

But if this is what Volug wants, who is he to question him?

So Grima returned to finish the remaining twenty percent of his work.

As he was mentally calculating their next destination an epiphany struck Grima.

" _Volug are here to protect me?_ " He once again spoke in the Ancient tongue.

This time he got a response from the laying Laguz as he turned his head up with an appraising look of concern.

" _Don't worry Volug I can easily protect myself from the unwanted peeper_." He said confidently, but this didn't reassure the wolf as he simply laid his head back down and released an audible sigh from his nose.

Amused by his dog like behavior, Grima gave Volug a short belly-rub before he got back to work. The unwanted peeper only observed and hadn't made any discernable action that could be taken as hostile so he left him alone, for now. Besides this paperwork isn't going to solve itself. Truly there is no rest for the wicked.

* * *

 **Please review. I'll take anything, especially any errors I've missed since I quickly put this together as fast as possible.**


	7. Chapter 6 Loud Silence

Y **ikes. So I'll make this short. I'm terribly sorry to all my readers for how long it took to finish this.**

 **Maybe this meaty update on the one year anniversary is enough to make up for this lengthy delay.**

 **Thank you WarriorofLight12 for hanging on as long as you did. Means a great deal.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6 Loud silence**

* * *

During Robin's own time, the rise of the post-schismatic nation-states had shifted the world stage quite dramatically. Yet the foundation and early history of these states have been long lost to the sands of time, and with what little information that did survive, only turned into myth and legend.

The last breath of Archanea as an independent entity at the Sack of the Millennium Court. The migration and later settlement of the Feroxi Horde into the former Northern states. The loss of contact with the Valmese and Jugdral continents in the aftermath of the Purge of the Admirals. The dramatic rise, and fall of the first Plegian State. Even the true foundations of the Halidom of Ylisse; not a single accurate record exists of these pivotal events.

Yet to Grima, this wasn't just history to be read and studied. This was just the world he lived in. So as he finally began to settle into his new environment, comparisons became all but inevitable. Such as his current occupation as the Strategos Adjutant of the DLA; is so unlike his time as the Strategos for Philip and later his son; Aleks.

His time as Aleks' top advisor is especially notable; considering how brutal it was in both scale and reach, with both continents of Archanea and Valentia suffering greatly. And he can certainly attest he was culpable too much of the barbarity committed during those campaigns. Yet In defense of Aleks, and by extension himself, these wars and the tactics used were prosecuted with the intention of ending an already decades long conflict. Not to mention, it did in fact usher in a peace for the two continents, albeit a short one.

So he could only laugh at the irony of the situation, as he is helping to champion ideals that would never been considered during the height of the Schism.

Even how the campaign is currently fought, is a far cry to what he is used to. There are no high paced maneuvers to outflank the enemy armies. No pitched battles with thousands of soldiers and beast on staggered lines. Not even the slow grind of resources and manpower. None of which could properly prepare him to the sluggish and low intensity conflict he would be facing as Adjutant Strategos for the Daein Liberation Army.

But if Grima is anything; he is nothing but adaptable.

So in Grima's humble opinion, he's done well to shepherd the collection of localized revolts into a fledgling coalition. Not exactly the ideal army to go toe-to-toe against the Occupation, but a potent force that if given the opportunity, that could easily sweep aside any sort of organized resistance.

Of course none of this could have been possible without the competent minds of General Tauroneo, Micaiah, Fiona, even the Queen Mother and Izuka; have been nothing but helpful. Logistics, widespread popular support, espionage and counter-espionage and even the beginnings of the royal court and bureaucracy to further legitimize their rule. All of which possible with their hard work and contributions.

He dares say that his being here is unnecessary.

Not because of how exceptional they are however, but because of how incompetent their adversaries are.

This isn't an insult to them.

They are all prodigies, coupled with the knowledge and practice to back it up. With the exception for Micaiah, they're all just too traditional and lack a certain vision to think outside of the box. Not that it's a problem. The Occupation is so incompetently predictable that it would be a miracle for them to produce any sort of a curve-ball to warrant out-of-the-box thinking.

Laughably incompetent. So incompetent that it beggars belief.

. . .

Almost unrealistic with how incompetent they are.

. . .

Even if that is the case. He is more than prepared to-

"Pay attention, something's happening!" A voice suddenly rang in his head.

Instinctively blinking away his daydreams, Grima quickly reacquainted himself to his current surroundings.

He is currently sitting in one of the many war councils they've had, since leaving the relative safety of Marado. Everyone of importance is currently in attendance from His Grace to the Queen Mother, General Tauroneo and Lady Fiona, Vice-Commander and her body guard Sothe, to himself and the current speaker, who is boring everyone to death; Izuka.

"It was thus through my careful analysis of intelligence that it was deemed necessary to send our pursuers into a wild goose chase!" Izuka dramatically said. It's almost as if he didn't practice this speech. "So far, my brilliant plan worked and the Begnions is tracking nothing but whispers."

From the looks he was reading from the listeners; he could clearly see his long-winded speech dazed, bored and confused his listeners. Except of course for His Grace. He is always such an attentive person.

Giving the advisor a look that didn't betray the fact he wasn't paying attention, Grima, took the reins in addressing the meeting.

"In other words we've mislead all Occupation scouts into thinking we've headed north into a sparsely populated forest." He concisely said.

"Would it not have been better if we simply eliminated these scouts instead of giving them such a risky spectacle? Fiona openly conjectured, glad she was finally able to ask her question.

"We've discussed this particular point. Extensively." Grima acknowledging this view. "The problem is the areas of their searches are near to villages we've passed over the weeks."

"Wouldn't that necessitate their destruction since their snooping is too close for comfort?" She pressed.

"Maybe, but in this case once word got out the scouts were killed near these villages; the occupation will surely raze these same villages as, in their mind, complicit to their loss." He darkly noted. "In an effort to reduce undue harm; _**we**_ agreed that a deception would be more appropriate."

With his short interjection satisfying Fiona's question, Grima gave the go-ahead for Izuka to continue his diatribe. Though he didn't look anything near thankful for Grima's perceived intrusion of his moment of dominance.

In order to regain the flow that was lost at the little exchanged, Izuka moved on to a different subject. Said topic was a case of a very public execution of supposed collaborationists which included a boy who was no older than thirteen.

"That man must be a ball at parties." Robin sarcastically said.

Placing his head on his hand, with his eyes firmly shut, seemingly in thought, Grima responded.

"He isn't enjoyable company in any situation." Speaking from experience.

"Thanks for the heads up, by the way."

"No problem." Grima got the odd impression he was waving his hand. "I'm just surprised you would doze off like you are now. You sure it's a good idea to do that?"

"I know I'm the weird one, since I jump into these meetings with a sort of enthusiasm." He passively said. "Sadly, Izuka is taking this opportunity to exert his authority by pressing buttons that 'disengage' me."

"You mean annoy you."

"And to broadcast his own cleverness and aptitude to everyone." Ignoring Robins comment. "And I'm sad to say that, at least the first part, is quite effective. The only saving grace is that he is so far up his own ass, he's unable to read the mood."

"He isn't entirely stupid, so one would think he would change tactics." Robin thought to himself. "Is it because he lacks imagination or he lacks any meaningful way too influence others?"

"Both. He isn't exactly transparent in his attempts." He sagely answered. "The Queen-Mother was particularly irate when I informed her of his attempts to bar His Grace from these meetings."

Grunting in understanding, Robin changed the focus of the conversation.

"But that isn't the only thing that's worrying you."

"You're right, though it isn't entirely an appropriate subject to worry about considering our current predicament." He deflected.

"That isn't true at all." Robin once again waving off his concern. "So come on, throw it out there. Besides I'm pretty sure I have a pretty good idea of your concerns.

Exhaling out of his nose, Grima acceded to Robins demands.

"It's about our reason for being here." Grima now got the impression that Robin was nodding his nonexistent head. "I'm concerned who we're supposed to be against, but most worrying of all is I don't have an inkling who or what it could be."

"Did you expect them to come out of the woodwork when we started working?" Robin asked humorously.

"Course not, but I find the lack of any leads disturbing."

"Leads? I think it's quite obvious that it'll be the God of Chaos of legend that we'll inevitably face." Though Robin said it as if it was obvious, he was surprised to find Grima wavering at the conclusion.

"You think differently?" Robin asked.

"Yes." Grima eventually said. "Yes I do."

"Alright, hit me with what you got." Robin proposed. "There has to be a good reason for you to think that way, so lay it on me."

Rolling his eyes at Robin's nonchalant attitude, Grima began to summarize his thoughts.

"Well besides the fact we can only rely on legends and stories that were passed down thousands of years, often times orally. I find solely pointing to the god of chaos to be both too obvious and too hasty."

"Too obvious?" Robin tested the words. "Are you sure you're not just projecting?"

Though Robin intended his last words to be playful banter, he certainly didn't expect the temperature to suddenly drop as he was sure Grima was giving him a glacial stare.

"I didn't mean it like that." Robin awkwardly apologized.

"No you're probably right." Grima said after a moment of consideration. "My own personal experiences did contribute to my conclusion."

"Regardless of my bias, my first impressions remain the same. Until I get more information, of course." Grima continued. "I feel the one we should be wary of the most would be the Goddess of Order."

"This world's proverbial 'good guy'?" Robin understandably questioned.

"Yes. This world's good guy." He firmly stated. "The very same one that preaches institutional racial segregation."

"That is a problem." Robin noted, yet casually dismissed.

"Do keep in mind that this _**problem**_ is in complete antithesis to our goals." He reminded his ghost. "Naga did say we must 'unite the peoples', and I am in the school of thought that the 'people' she is referring too, is both the Laguz and Beorc."

"I agree that not only is it at odds to our objectives, but that we'll eventually be publicly against the practice. But I find it difficult to find any relevance to this." Robin countered. "It's very much possible this doctrine came out only through interpretation of fallible words, not necessarily from the infallible mouth."

"Yet, out of the things the Beorc and Laguz are consistent, it's their segregation. That and their treatment of the Branded, but that goes without saying."

"What exactly are you getting at?" Robin impatiently said.

"It's incredibly convenient the same coalition that defeated the God of Chaos is now forever split by ideals advanced in the name of the Goddess of Order." Grima coyly said, though what he implied did not go over Robin's nonexistent head.

"There is a number of reasons why that is the case." Robin slowly said. "But even I; cannot deny the convenience of the situation."

"Of course we'll need something a lot more solid than speculation." Robin added.

"I doubt we'll get anything beyond speculation any time soon." Grima sadly admitted. "Though a fresh perspective may enlighten us."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Nailah. Due to their isolation, her country of Hatari is very unlike those of the rest of the continent; I hear they don't practice segregation and their treatment of the Branded; is fair." He thought internally.

"Though it's very difficult to get her to talk about a single topic for any length of time; as she would inevitably use that chance to test my knowledge of the Ancient language." He lamented to himself.

"Not used to dealing with strong women?" Robin teased.

"Though there is another perspective I'm curious with." Grima wondered aloud, once again, purposely ignoring Robin. "Rafiel. I'm incredibly curious and concerned about the Serene Forest genocide."

"What's so concerning about it? Besides the obvious." Robin amended.

"I'm concerned it may have benefited our mysterious enemy in a way that puts us in a disadvantage. What they could possibly gain at the slaughter of a species is beyond me." Grima speculated. "The Heron are pacifists, so they were no threat militarily. Maybe it's their Galdr? Most likely a very specific Galdr, if it were the case."

"Though, the true value that was lost would probably elude us forever." Grima acknowledged.

"Would you seriously consider asking him?" Robin hesitantly asked. "About what happened to his people?"

"Of course not. Bringing up something as harrowing as this would do me no favors. So this line of thought is practically a dead end." Grima defensively replied. "But the thought still remains."

"I'm glad you're being sensitive towards Rafiel's feelings." Robin backhandedly complimented.

"Now you're just being plain insulting." He shot back, letting the conversation die down.

Moments go by as Grima made effort to seem as if he was paying attention to the outside world. Though it's clear he had more on his mind.

"Anything else on your mind?" Robin eventually probed.

"Besides the fact that I know nothing; so nothing to be particularly concerned about." Grima quickly said, getting out of his pensive state.

Though, it was clear Robin wanted to push on this a little bit more. He respected his space. Besides his attention is needed elsewhere.

Izuka seems to have gotten himself into a pickle when he referred the child that was executed as a martyr and was intending to make everyone in Daein aware of this fact. This inevitably won him the disgusted rebukes from Micaiah and Fiona, as they refused to make a tragedy such as this into another political talking point when there is a plethora of others to choose from.

If nothing is quickly done to defuse the situation, the meeting would devolve into an incoherent shouting match and collapse the meeting altogether.

Really; Izuka really needs to understand the optics of the situation.

* * *

After another hour, the meeting ended without any raised voices. That's certainly a victory in his book. Though, the two aggrieved parties will leave the tent unsatisfied, as the compromise he was able to forge would still utilize the execution as propaganda, yet said martyrs will remain unnamed and will be lumped into a very long-list of other grievances; to allow the affected families to privately grieve.

And speaking of one of the unsatisfied parties; coming up to him is Micaiah, Sothe in tow.

"Grima, may I have a word with you?" She curtly asked.

"Would it happen to be about the meeting today?" He arched his eyebrows. Surprised how quickly she came to him.

His surprise only doubled when she shook her head. "I just wanted to invite you for tea."

"Would we be discussing today's meeting at tea-time?" He once again asked.

"How many times do I have to say that we won't be talking about that?!" She indignantly questioned.

"Just once." He cheekily said. Taking great joy in making Micaiah's misery.

Reluctantly accepting his request, she simply answered. "No, none of what was discussed today will be brought up. I only wanted to talk; considering how little time we've spent together, recently."

"How about you Sothe?" Turning his attention to the bodyguard. "Will you be there?"

"Of course. Now answer Micaiah's request." He crossed his arms in impatience.

"Harsher than usual." Robin internally noted.

Grima couldn't help but agree, before he could respond; a piercing and insistent voice caught his attention.

Swiveling his head, Grima had the unenviable position in being the focus of Izuka's attention.

"Grima. I must speak to you." Completely oblivious to the situation.

"Can't you tell I'm speaking to someone, Izuka?" Narrowing his eyes at the hunchbacked advisor.

"Is it important? Something about today's meeting." Izuka impatiently shot back.

"No?" More a question than a statement.

"Then it isn't important." He promptly waved off.

Grima didn't need to see the look of indignation forming on Sothe's face, Micaiah's face on the other hand took more of an imagination to process. Something in between very unamused to very annoyed.

"Just state your business." He had the feeling Micaiah was aghast with his sudden change of priorities. He just wanted this over, as quickly as possible.

"I want to inform that I'll be so busy; that I'll be unable to host any consultations between the two of us." Unperturbed with the hostilities directed at him.

"I appreciate the notice." He didn't sound appreciative. "But was it really necessary to inform me, so?"

"I wanted to forestall any more _**surprise**_ visits." Emphasizing his words to show he didn't believe, for a second, such a weak excuse.

"That's fair." Not one to argue at the moment.

"Surprise visits? You've been with Izuka?" Micaiah asked in genuine surprise with the arrangement.

"Among other people." He confirmed.

"Well, make surprise visits with those people instead." Izuka annoyingly stated.

"Well do." Grima completely done with this conversation.

"Since you understand, I'll take my leave now." Promptly leaving just as he came.

"What a guy." Sothe spat out as he tracked the advisors retreating figure.

"No need to remind me. I need to work with the guy." He said matter-of-factly.

"We noticed." Micaiah accused. Though Grima had a feeling there was an underlying meaning to her words.

"About my earlier invitation?" Micaiah said, returning to the earlier topic.

"Right. I'm sorry to say that I must deny this request." He solemnly said, although his answer appear to not to be well-received. "I have a full schedule today."

"I didn't realize you were so busy on your supposed free day." She narrowed her eyes in an accusatory glare.

Putting up his hands in mock surrender, Grima did what he could only do in this situation. He made excuses for himself. "Rafiel thought it would be a good day to continue my forays into the Ancient Language and His Grace has been making great progress as a dark mage, so I wanted to capitalize on his progress."

"At the very least we still have that meeting in my tent, later today." Grima assuaged.

Micaiah only continued to glare at him, for either his pitiful excuses or weak concession. It was difficult to tell. What he could tell is that he won't hear the end of it from Sothe.

"Very well." Micaiah quickly replied as she made a beeline for the exit, with Sothe in tow.

Now in an empty tent with only his paperwork and ghost to keep him company. Grima stared at the exit where the two of them; and wondered if he could've handled the situation any better.

"There's always a better way." His ghost answered for him.

"Maybe." He conceded. "But it's better to keep that shadow away from her as much as possible. I'm not taking any chances."

"You don't find it dangerous that it's decided to follow you now?" Robin seriously asked. "What if it sees something interesting?"

"It's a good thing then he can't hear anything interesting; considering how cautious the shadow has." Grima confidently shot back as he began to file his papers into a neat order.

"Besides, I welcome the attention." Peaking Robins curiosity.

"How so?" Robin said, taking the bait.

"Makes it easier to meet him personally."

* * *

Grima may not have a long list of activities and hobbies that he could describe as enjoyable, that doesn't include his day job as Strategos. But reading and learning something new would fit the bill well. His innate curiosity lends him well in his new environment, as he voraciously consumed any and all tomes on the new 'wonders' of this world. It's gotten so bad that his usual provider, Aimee, is hard pressed in sourcing the more esoteric works such as references to the Ancient Language.

Luckily for Grima, he had a few native speakers who were more than willing to teach him; without any text based aids.

Which, brings him to the reason why he is attentively sitting across a certain blonde with wings having a conversation, which to any casual observer would sound like gibberish.

" _Would you like some tea, Grima?_ " Rafiel emphasizing each word very deliberately.

" _I would love tea. Thank you._ " Grima eventually said.

" _It's wonderful to see how well you've progressed over the past few months, Grima_." The Heron praised, still keeping his words slow and obvious.

" _Thank you, it's all thanks to my constant lessons with you, Rafiel_." Grima returning the praise, albeit with slight pauses in between words.

" _It seems our next lessons would be working on your casual conversation skills._ " Rafiel said, mostly to himself.

" _Did somebody say casual conversation_." A loud feminine voice called outside the tent.

Looking towards the flaps of the spacious tent, a familiar Laguz came barging in. Eye-patch and all.

" _I'm more 'n willing to fill that role for you, Grima!_ " Nailah quickly spoke out, taking great care to make sure he couldn't easily follow along. " _So long as we stray away from any inane topics you love to rant about!_ "

It took Grima a good minute to deconstruct her quick and heavily accented words, but eventually he caught the full meaning of her words and gave her a heavy scowl in response.

" _None of my topics are_ _ **inane**_ _."_ Emphasizing his words by purposely slowing his last word.

"Indeed." Rafiel interrupted in standard speak. "I thank you for the offer Nailah but this requires a more delicate touch."

"Have it your way." Nailah quickly dismissed.

If Grima were honest, he would've preferred it if their lessons moved away from the hand-holding style that Rafiel tends to lean on. Though, if that meant he didn't have to suffer through another disastrous lesson with Nailah; he'll gladly hold his tongue.

"But I agree with Rafiel. You're catching on quite quickly." She honestly praised. "You'll be holding a full conversation with Volug by the next full moon."

"Here's hoping." He noncommittally said. "So is that the end of today's lessons?"

"Yes, we've made good progress today." Rafiel said, taking a dignified drink from his tea.

"Well if that is all." Grima said as he brought himself off his seat.

But just as, he was about to make his first step toward the exit, a strong hand grabbed his wrist to stop his movement.

"You'll leave so soon?" Nailah questioned. "It's an insult in Hatari culture to neglect a table with unfinished refreshments."

Looking at the wolf Laguz straight in the eye, he was more than ready to challenge her on this. But it was a long while since he had a casual conversation with them, so it shouldn't hurt to indulge her.

Snorting from his nose, Grima was released from Nailah's grip as he reintroduced himself to his seat.

"It would be a shame if I let such good tea go to waste." He excused his sudden change.

"I thought so." Nailah smugly said as she found herself a comfortable seat. "So how is the day of our resident workaholic?"

Amused, Grima almost let out a short laugh in response, but it seems their other company didn't see the humor.

"Nailah there is no reason for that nonsense." The Heron scolded.

"Grima understands I hold no offense." Nailah defended herself.

"I'll admit I do keep a full schedule of work." Grima interposed, making sure to nip this argument before it gained steam. "Reports, filings, and any other assortment of paperwork goes right to my desk for approval. This sadly cuts into my free time."

"You know, you really should just say it how it is." Nailah pointed at him with her pinky finger which is also holding her cup of tea. "You need to cut back and live a little. Just like how that Beorc saying goes: 'all work and no play makes the old-man go grey.'"

"Such wise and relevant counsel." Grima nodded as he brought his tea cup to his mouth. "Almost reminded me of your Queenly status.

He gave his delicious tea; a short sip. "Almost."

Nailah gave him a playful, yet feral grin. "The Pup bites back." Clearly enjoying herself.

Rafiel gave off an exasperated sigh as he brought his hand to his forehead.

"Honestly you two."

"Relax Rafiel, it's just playful banter among friends." Nailah sat back, loudly sipping on her tea.

"She's right on both counts." Grima said as he returning his cup to the table. "My busy schedule doesn't allow me to spend enough time with the two of you. Especially with how isolated you two are to the rest of the army."

It was a sad fact that the general regard for Laguz among the common soldiery is very bigoted at best and outright hateful at worst; which forced both Nailah and Rafiel to segregate themselves from the rest of the army for their own safety. Sure, some of the original dawn brigade members and some of the higher ups are very accommodating to the Laguz royalty.

But this toleration didn't exactly translate well to an expanded social circle. Practically the only people who interact with the Laguz on a more familiar basis are Micaiah, Sothe and himself. And the only reason Volug isn't included in this is because most of the army treats him as a guard dog.

Grima may not exactly refer to their relationship as close, but it clearly went beyond that of acquaintances', so he felt a sense of responsibility to their predicament and additionally guilt for contributing to their seclusion.

"Grima." A soft voice called out, bringing himself out of deep thought. Surprisingly it was Rafiel who called his name.

"There is no need to feel like that. We understand full well how important you are to everyone. Right Nailah." He looked expectantly to her.

"Yes, listen to the bird-brain and don't over-think it." Nailah waving off both his concerns and Rafiel light scowl.

Openly chuckling with the Laguz's attempt of lightening the mood; Grima couldn't help but be swept up as well. Immediately, the conversation devolved into a light-hearted banter where Grima regaled the shenanigans the Army has been going through; such as the revelation that Meg is somehow engaged with Zihark through a promise from her father, the continued gluttonous nature of Ilyana and Grima's personal favorite. Sothe's very unfriendly competition with Jorge on a game of liars dice.

Never before has he thought he would witness Sothe act so strongly; and have it nothing to do with Micaiah.

"Speaking of Micaiah." Rafiel interrupting the joking mood. "I think she'll be the best partner for you."

". . . As my casual conversation partner?" Grima eventually asked for clarification.

"Of course." Rafiel answered rather confusedly.

"Oh sweet innocent Rafiel." Nailah said to no one in particular.

Moving the conversation along, Grima quickly spoke up. "She is a great candidate."

"Candidate?" Nailah questioned. "Are you saying she isn't your first choice?"

"Not exactly." Grima said.

"I would've chose Volug." He quickly said to explain himself. "From a learning point of view he is in exactly the same position as I am, yet in Common speak. So it would make sense for the two learners would learn from each other's strong points."

Rafiel and Nailah gave each other an appraising look on how to deal with this. And it is evidently clear to Grima that this wouldn't just be about his future casual conversation partner.

"Grima." The blonde spoke up. "You're not avoiding Micaiah, are you?"

Grima for his part at least had the decency to look confused and offended with the suggestion.

"What would give you that impression?" He quickly asked.

It was Nailah who answered his question.

"Well, we noticed you haven't been together for a while now. Since at least we left Terin."

"That's not true. I just met Micaiah earlier today." He rebutted.

"That was formal a meeting." She shot back. "When was the last time you spent time with her that wasn't because of your work?"

"I have a very busy schedule." Switching his defense. "Until just know, I didn't have much personal time to spend to just talking."

"That may be." Rafiel cutting in. "But I'm convinced that your reasoning is just a convenient excuse."

Grima is surprised by how far the two of them were willing to push on this. If he knew this would be a consequence to his decision – well it wouldn't have changed his decision, but he would've been more mindful to the blowbacks.

"I'll admit I haven't had any personal conversations with her since the last major operation." Grima eventually replied sounding rather apologetic. "But I'll say this now. I'm not avoiding her because of some imaginary petty disagreements, and if it were construed that way then that was never the intention."

"Today I've called for a meeting so once business is done; I'll gladly invite her and Sothe for dinner to allay any misgivings." He added further.

Looking towards the two; he noticed that Nailah wasn't exactly paying attention to his words, but rather looking to Rafiel who was looking very intently to him. So much so that he swears he's not looking at him, but something deeper and intangible.

"I'll hold you up to that." Rafiel eventually said, appearing satisfied with the results of the conversation.

"I'm sure you would." He said, moving the conversation along. "But I'm curious, what's the reasoning for thinking I was actively avoiding Micaiah?"

"We heard the rumor through the grape-vine." Nailah cryptically said.

"So Micaiah told you." Grima quickly presumed.

Nailah openly frowned at Grima's quick deduction. "Why the question if you knew already?"

"I didn't. Reasoning and common-sense told me it would either be Micaiah or Sothe as they are the only two who interact with you frequently enough. And considering the other was Sothe-well, I just wanted to confirm." He unapologetically answered.

Nailah huffed at Grima's arrogance. "It's exactly that attitude why you have such an infamous reputation."

"Nailah!" Rafiel gasped out by her scandalous comment.

It's clear to Grima the topics they've discussed was much more diverse than he originally anticipated.

"So you both took it upon yourself to mediate this issue?" He asked. Upon receiving their nods he continued. "Well, if you didn't speak up, I probably wouldn't have known, so thank you.

"It's no problem, Grima. We consider the both of you our friends." Turning to the wolf Laguz. "Right Nailah?"

"Of course." She said rather seriously. "I know you'll rather keep people at arms-length, but in this case I believed you genuinely cared for Micaiah's well-being."

"I didn't realize I was being so transparent." Grima humorously said. "I'll be sure to keep my feelings more secretive from now on."

"That would be difficult; considering I'm a Heron." Rafiel said without any shifts in tone.

"What is that supposed to mean?" He quickly asked, eyeing the Heron.

Instead of an answer from Rafiel, it was Nailah who spoke up as she leaned forward from her seat in concerned tone. "Rafiel, are you sure about this?"

"Like we agreed, Grima is our friend." Rafiel reminded her. "He is more than deserving of our trust."

Backing down, Nailah allowed herself to relax in her seat as Rafiel moved to answer Grima's question.

"As you know Grima, Herons have the ability to perform Galdrs. Additionally, we are able to gleam into a person's true emotions."

Outwardly, he gave off a wide-eyed, but subdued surprise to Rafiel's confession. Inwardly on the other hand; he was desperately trying his best to make sense of this new information.

Was he compromised from the very beginning?

No their actions spoke otherwise. He is also pegged them to be terrible actors for such a con.

With that in mind, he could only assume what he is showing them is what they know of him.

"True emotions? Does that mean you can understand a person perfectly?" He asked with a hand on his chin in deep thought.

"For most people, I can distinguish their true selves with near perfect accuracy." The Heron answered.

"For most people?" Raising an eyebrow to odd chose of words.

"Means you're the special case, Grima." Nailah butted in with her patented bluntness.

Rolling his eyes, Rafiel spoke up. "As Nailah has eloquently stated you're a different case. Unlike most people; I can't read your emotions accurately or at all. It's like looking at whirlpool of often contradicting emotions."

Grima could give a wild guess why that is.

"And you're okay with that?" Grima seriously asked. "You're okay with not only associating, but trusting a person you can't understand?"

"You say that as if I couldn't just talk to you?" Rafiel shot back, taken aback by the suggestion. "Besides, I honestly find it a breath-of-fresh air."

"Breath-of-fresh air?" Grima repeated.

"This ability is a burden, as I feel it's difficult to truly know a person on an intimate level." Rafiel admitted, much to Nailah's hidden worry.

Grima for his part, nodded at the sincere words, directed towards him. Sadly he is too preoccupied to give an response.

Sure, he is glad to confirm his worries is completely unfounded, but questions still remain on some minor intricacies such as how such an ability works and what is their limitations. So much questions, but it's better to not let his inner-scholar run amok.

"Is that all?" He calmly asked.

The two Laguz looked at each rather confused by the rather bland response.

"I expected more of a reaction. That, and questions." Nailah spoke up. "Considering it's you we're talking about."

"Oh, I definitely have more questions to ask, but those could wait. It's more important that I know if you have any other revelations you wish to share." Receiving Rafiel quiet nod.

"Well, I have to admit I'm very taken off-guard with this admission. I really don't know how to process it." He distantly said.

"What's to process?" His inner voice, aka Robin piped up. "They trust you enough to not use this fact against them."

"That's fine and all, but now I have to keep in mind this fact when interacting with Herons from now on." He restlessly replied. "Just another complicated and unknown layer to a world that I'm completely ignorant too."

"You're panicking for no reason. They trust you unconditionally." Robin forcefully pointed out. "The only way they would go against you; is if you give them a reason to.

"And I don't already? In every regards I'm still an unknown quantity. Not exactly trustworthy"

"Actions you made; easily closed any concerns of your personality." Robin asserted.

"If you're so concerned, why not do more?" Robin challenged.

"Do more?" He repeated as if it was foreign to him.

Robin nodded his head. "Take a lesson from my book."

The cryptic statement, at first, threw Grima around the hooper, until he remembered what Robin he was speaking too.

"The other Robin had the luxury of being inflicted with an extensive case of amnesia." Robin began. "I, on the other hand, didn't. So I was unfortunate enough to lug around a terrible burden. For what seemed for my entire life."

"Until you met Chrom." Grima finished for Robin.

"Of course I never trusted him at first. He was bull-headed, too trusting and many times foolish. And quite frankly, I didn't believe someone like him could exist." Grima had the feeling that Robin was beginning to smile as he retold his memories. "But that man can surely worm his way around. And eventually I trusted him enough with everything I knew.

"My mark, my parentage and the destiny it all entailed. And he accepted me wholeheartedly, and the rest is history."

Grima was wondered to silence by Robins sincere words. He wondered why such a soul would willingly choose to continue to bind himself to his doom.

The answer he came to was so unbelievable, yet so in character. He began to laugh (All internally of course) to himself of the sheer absurdity of it.

Robin merely silently watched as Grima put himself into a laughing fit.

Just as he began to wipe tears out of his eyes, Grima addressed Robin.

"I can't tell them the truth. It'll be too confusing and could easily disrupt everything I worked hard to gain." Grima finally composed himself enough to fully address Robin. "But you did inspire me."

"Grima. You still there?" Nailah loudly called. "I think we lost him. Best if we bury the body."

"You're exaggerating." Rafiel chastised.

"Well please enlighten those who lack the ability to see someone's true emotion." Nailah sarcastically countered.

"He's processing and would welcome it if you weren't so insistently loud." Though it wasn't Rafiel who answered, but Grima.

"And he finally graces us with his presence." Nailah, now turning her mockery to Grima. "Did you enjoy your beauty sleep?"

Unperturbed with Nailah's attitude; Grima merely gave the two of them a well-meaning smile. "It was good. Used the time to make up my mind."

"Really? On what?" Rafiel answered. Hoping to keep Nailah's sarcasm out of this sudden development.

"The amount of trust you given me." He plainly said. "It's woefully one-sided."

"One-sided?" Nailah perking up with a more serious tone in her voice.

"Indeed. I find it difficult you could trust me so."

"Nothing hard about it at all, like what we said earlier; you're our friend." Rafiel reiterated once again. Pointedly eyeing Nailah.

With that opening, Grima initiated his plan. "And I appreciate that sentiment, wholeheartedly. So much so, as your friend it would only be fair if I share one of my own."

The puzzled looks on the two Laguz was momentary as the implication of Grima's words slowly seeped into their heads. Grima for his part was looking rather abashed and chose not to make any sort of eye contact with those across from him; he also made sure to awkwardly feel the top of his gloved right hand to keep them off balanced.

Silence dominated the previously relaxed mood as the two Laguz waited patiently for Grima's next words. He calculatingly allowed the silence to continue on longer than was necessary as to add weight of the importance of his coming words. He also took this time to reassure himself that this is being done for not only his own benefit, but to those in front of him, as well.

With a nervous smile he finally spoke with a composed voice; ready to take the plunge.

"You know, it's not often I choose remove my gloves, and it mostly stems from the fact I'm not comfortable removing it in front of others." He paused once more. Drawing a short breath he continued. "But I'm willing to make an exception."

As he finished uttering those words, he deliberately made slow work on removing his glove. Upon removal, he continued to tantalize their suspense by showing the palm of his hand instead of the back. After enough teasing he finally revealed what was hiding beneath the glove.

A purple horse-shoe shaped brand bearing six eyes, three on each side, stared back at the two Laguz. To any layman it looked like a very sinister tattoo, but to the Laguz, the implication of someone bearing such a brand is clear.

"You're one of the 'parentless'." Rafiel slowly realized.

"I'm unfamiliar with that specific term, but I'll assume that is equivalent to the Branded." Grima confirmed. "So I certainly do have more than Beorc blood flowing through me."

The Branded; a truly sad people that Grima stumbled upon during his many sleepless nights of reading. Though limited with accurate information, what he does know the branded are a people born through the copulation of a Beorc and Laguz couple; unable to find any sort of community with either their fellow Beorc or Laguz kin. So much so they were heavily persecuted as some form of abomination against the goddess. A status that Grima is quite sympathetic and familiar towards.

Alternating his gaze between the brand and person who bears said brand, Rafiel looked on; dumbfounded.

"I never would've guessed." He eventually said.

"Then I did a pretty good job of keeping that fact hidden." Grima neutrally said.

"I'm with Rafiel on this, Grima." Nailah speaking up for the first time. "I took you as exceptional. Even for a Beorc. But this is entirely different."

"How so?" Somewhat nervous at the tone of her words.

"Well you can't exactly 'hide' your parentage." She answered. "Not from a Laguz, anyway."

There it was. This is what happens when you make plans with wrong or incomplete information. Back in Archanea he understood the politics, mythology and the important influential people. Here? He was fish out of water. Always a step behind to someone who was born and raised here.

"It's possible it might have something to do with Rafiels inability to read my emotions?" He posited.

"Possibly." Rafiel nodding in understanding. "But I'm guessing that'll lead to some uncomfortable questions being asked."

"Indeed it does." Grima confirmed, very relieved for Rafiel's quick understanding. "To make a long story short; it's very related to a certain magical area that I am proficient in, and the very same topic that Nailah is so uninterested with."

"Then we won't mention it." Nailah huffed in good humor at the jab.

"I appreciate it."

"I must admit Grima" Rafiel said aloud. "I never expected you to hold onto such a secret. I can't even imagine."

In response, Grima gave him a smile, but a darkened one with all the warmth sucked out.

"It's a rather curious thing really; never truly finding a place to belong. And curiously enough; of all the things the Beorc and Laguz could find common ground on, it's their revulsion on the Branded." He commented cynically.

Grima may be projecting himself into this fabricated story, but the raw underlying emotions are very real. He understands, in an intimate level, of the stigma of being mixed blood. Always looked upon with suspicion, and denied the simple yet crucial traits of community and acceptance. He was never able to find community with either the humans or dragons (and he is sure as hell he wasn't looking at the other third of his blood.) yet he understands how lucky he was to find individuals who looked past that very stigma. Many would never have that chance.

"Speak for yourself." Nailah cutting into the mood once again. "Unlike here, Hatari has no presuppositions on your so called 'parentless' or 'branded'. Everyone there is treated equally."

"Sounds like a utopia." He honestly appraised.

"That's neither here nor there." She dismissed. "But know this Grima; I could care less of your parentage, so if you ever feel the need, find me, and I would gladly welcome you to Hatari. You're a friend first, anything else second."

The affirmative nod from Rafiel showed they were at least unanimously sympathetic to his stigma, no matter how misplaced it may be.

"Thank you, I appreciate the offer." He answered honestly. "But I need to ask the both of you to keep this to yourselves; I can't depend on others being so understanding as you two are."

"Of course." They both affirmed.

An awkward silence occurred as the occupants were unwilling to speak, but rather digest to what was revealed in silence.

Taking the opportunity, Grima brought himself up from his seat.

"Since I'm finished with my tea, I'll take my leave now. I still have a full schedule to keep." He quickly excused himself.

With the distance between himself and the tent far enough, Grima mentally relaxed as he made his way to his own tent.

But just as he relaxed, his suspiciously quiet roommate decided to make himself known.

"A rather interesting lie you concocted back there." Robin said with neither an accusing or damning tone. "If I didn't know you better I would've taken it as the truth."

"It was the closest to the truth without it being the truth." He smartly answered. "Besides, would've it been any better if I remained silent?"

"I don't presume to know. How you tell or not tell your life is wholly dependent on you." Robin firmly said. "That said. I can't entirely agree with it.

"You taking advantage of their pity."

"I've taken advantage of their pity from the very beginning. This whole relationship is defined by that." Grima defended. "What I did today merely contextualize a center-point of our relationship and avoids any awkward or uncomfortable questions in the future."

"I'll also point out I was being more truthful to them now; than ever before. I merely explained the truth; in terms they could easily grasp and relate to."

"That's called deception." Robin unabashedly said.

"I call it creatively-telling-the-truth." Grima retorted, without shame. "Besides, eventually I will tell them the unaltered truth. But right now, the truth is a luxury; a luxury I cannot afford to give."

"You may be right." Robin said reluctantly. "So I accept your judgment. Though it's still my opinion you should tell the truth to someone you hold in confidence."

"I'll keep that in mind when I find whomever that is." Grima stated finally.

* * *

Dark magic has always been a rare sight among the magical arts, even during Grima's time. Compared to their estranged relatives in light magic, practitioners in this art would number in the low hundreds compared to the few thousand light mages. This shortage is attributed to a number of factors such as the taboo and prejudice associated with the art, the lack of an official sanction from a royal court and the reclusive nature of the few dark masters. Yet the chief issue that plagued the proliferation of dark magic was a lack of a straightforward universal curriculum and the nonexistent nature of true canon in the realm of dark magic.

The lack of true canon is especially problematic as the hodge-podge of doctrines and dogmas would often produce conflicting and inefficient spells that made it difficult to actually progress dark magic beyond its then, simplistic form; unlike the other more common and complex arcane arts.

Truth to be told, it was in these two areas that Grima excelled; which eventually propelled him to a distinguished figure in the magical world. Sure, he was a master in the dark arts, jinxes, curses, and hexes in his own right; but he truly shined in instituting a true canon and a standardized curriculum. When he finally perfected and _**written**_ his simplified canon of dark magic, at the time, it was readily adopted by all standard dark mages, new and old, and was so resilient that by Robin's time it remained fundamentally the same; only with a different name.

Though his standard curriculum in the dark arts would disappear in the forth coming generations; superseded by a more doctrinally oppressive program. The foundations and theories he instituted were still critically influential in the many modern mystic curricula's.

The longevity of his influence is especially apparent at the fact; that after 2000 years since being sealed. The dark arts he nourished, flourished and propagated while light magic; practically disappeared from the world by the time of Robin's birth.

So it was his humble opinion that Pelleas is an above average student in the dark arts. He's hard-working and curious which is naturally conducive to absorbing the many complicated doctrines and theorems in dark magic.

Though the dark tomes in this world use a different base form in their invocation of spells, Grima could still easily adapt his knowledge to give helpful and relevant tips.

"Your practical and theoretical skills have recently shown great improvement, but I noticed that your primary vector of approach is lacking in proper incantation distribution." Grima smoothly educated the enraptured prince. "So the next time we do another live practice, we'll be concentrating on this specific area; did you understand that?"

"Of course." The prince eagerly affirmed.

"Very good, with that said, this should be the perfect opportunity to take a break. Will that be okay with you?"

"I'm more than ready to keep going, Sir Grima." His acolyte excitedly answered.

"Peace, your grace." Raising his hands in a calming manner. "I understand your excitement, but there is nothing wrong with taking a breather, especially after a productive lesson such as this."

It's clear his words worked to calm him down, but the prince remained undeterred.

"Shouldn't we at least discuss the dangers of essence deficiencies and magical blowback?"

It's rather amusing by how gregarious the normally reserved prince becomes when it comes to learning.

"How about this, your grace." Grima softly spoke. "Instead of taking a break, how about we shift the topic to something that's less magic heavy?

"Less magic heavy?" The prince questioned. "Such as what?"

"I'll like for you to answer a simple question. That's all." He simply proposed.

Intrigued; the prince sat silently, but attentively to what his teacher had to say.

Giving the prince an amused smirk, Grima reclined back into his chair. "Tell me, what is the most important trait a leader must have to lead?"

"The most important?" Pelleas slowly repeated the words, trying and failing to come up with an answer.

"Yes." Answering the question that wasn't really a question. "I'm sure both your mother and Izuka gave you some nebulous explanation of ruling. But what I'm truly curious is your own thoughts."

Nothing was said as the young blue-head thought long about his question.

Frowning to himself, Grima was about to move on from the topic until the prince-in-training finally spoke up.

"Is there a right answer to this question?"

It wasn't the response he was hoping for, but nonetheless remained a good sign the prince is at least getting the idea behind the question.

"Maybe." Grima amusedly answered.

Silently frowning at the non-answer, Pelleas remained resolute to finding an answer as he mulled to himself.

"I think" He slowly said aloud. "The most important trait would be confidence. Confidence in yourself to do the right thing."

"Really? Confidence? It's an interesting answer." Grima surprisingly said with a hint of a taunt. "You didn't sound so _confident_ about your answer."

"I'm-." Unable to bring himself to answer the statement.

Grima mentally sighed to himself with the development. The prince is identifying his own shortcomings, which is nice to hear, but defeats the point of the whole exercise. What Pelleas thinks holds him back from leading competently and what he thinks is most important to lead; isn't mutually exclusive. Often there is a divergence between these two lines of questioning, and Grima could attest to that from experiences in the past and now.

It was disheartening as the worst possible situation could present itself and make this whole exercise worthless, but this could be managed with enough finesse.

Just as Grima returned his attention the prince, he was surprised to find said Prince, as if sensing his thoughts, finally ready to defend his case.

"I very much understand I lack self-confidence at times." He slowly explained with only hint of his shyness. "But my answer is built on the observation of many of my retainers and each one of them displayed enormous levels of confidence that has helped build this liberation to where it is now."

"So I find no probable reason to dismiss my answer." Finishing his statement with a surprising amount of authority.

Grima almost couldn't help himself from letting out an approving smirk at the princes retort. Luckily he was able to rein it in from the fact he underestimated the princes observation skills. Also by the fact he failed to address one important fact.

"An excellent point, your grace." He honestly praised. "But I have the feeling that this isn't your final answer."

Visibly deflating, the young blue-head looked away as he spoke. "Yes that's true. That's not to say I'm taking back what I said. It's just-"

Grima studied Pelleas as he quietly thought over his next words.

"After thinking about the other's and how they led; each one of them exemplify leadership in their own way. Tauroneo with his martial strength, Micaiah with her compassion and mercy, you with tactical and strategic self-confidence and even Izuka with his own brand of authority through wordplay."

"Each one of them unique and defining so choosing one or none of them seems almost foolish." Finishing his words.

Grima couldn't help but smirk as he asked the question. "Foolish? Is that what you think of my question?"

Taken off guard, the prince tried and failed to explain his words. "I-I didn't mean it like that- I just – Uhm."

"Peace, your Grace. I mean that in jest." He amusedly said, instantly calming said prince. "I'm just glad you got the _spirit_ of the question."

"Spirit?"

"Indeed." He emphatically answered. "The point of the question was to provoke this thoughtful mentality from you."

"But I do expect getting an answer from you, eventually." He amended.

Groaning at the sudden burden placed on him, Pelleas looked empathically to Grima. "You're expecting me to answer this rhetorical question? Isn't that a rather tall order for me?"

"Maybe." He answered rather smugly. Not letting his negativity dampen Grima's rather good mood. "A lot could change in the future, and judging from your own personal experiences; wouldn't you agree?"

Taken aback from Grima's reminder to his own past as an orphan, Pelleas took a calm look to himself as he quietly took a greater appreciation to his current position.

But to Grima, he noticed his mood swung in a direction he did not expect. It's an improvement for sure, but it was replaced with a certain melancholy that somewhat egged at his owns concerns.

Taking the dive, Grima looked at the prince with a concerned look. "Something on your mind, Your Grace?"

"Nothing's wrong." He answered a little too quickly. After it was obvious this didn't satisfy Grima's concerns, he eventually amended. "Just – just anxious about the trust you put into me. Yours and Micaiah's."

"Micaiah's?" He surprisingly repeated, not expecting her name to come up.

"Yes. I was speaking to her earlier and she told me in no less the same words of the trust she gives to me." He smiled rather fondly.

"And that is another thing the two of us agree in." Nodding his head in approval. "But do remember it's not just the two of us who trust you; but your own mother, General Tauroneo and many of the soldiers in this army."

"And I appreciate and thank their trust. Yet it's completely different when it's the two people I look up to." He looked away, rather embarrassed at the admission.

Raising his eyebrows at the confession, Grima couldn't help but ask. "You look up to me? I can understand Micaiah, but _**me**_?" Tauroneo would be the better male figure."

"I respect General Tauroneo greatly, but unlike the three of us; he wasn't touched by the spirits."

The mention of spirits visibly perplexed the red-eyed tactician so much that it elicited an exasperated sigh of disbelief from the prince.

"Don't tell me you don't know either? How the both of you aren't aware of this is beyond me." He said in disbelief.

"I'm sorry; I'm just not familiar of the term 'spirits' in this context." He tried to defend himself. "Do you mean the act of contracting with a spirit for a basis of certain magics?"

"Yes?" The prince answered, unsure with what to answer this question. "We're talking about Spirit Protections, right? I mean you do have the mark."

Immediately catching the last words the prince said, Grima's mind went into overdrive as he thought over a thousand scenarios and reactions. With the combined wisdom of draconic and human thought; forged over decades of hard, real world experience, he came to one conclusion.

"Mark? You've seen my mark?" He cautiously and slowly asked.

"Yes. Only by chance; when I came into your tent for one of our lessons you had one of your gloves half on." Pelleas answered honestly.

"I see." Grima distantly said.

He remembered that day quite clearly. He removed his coat and gloves along with a small cloaking hex on it as he was working on a rather sensitive project which required the removal of such articles of clothing and spells due to the risk of contamination. And in the rush of preparing for the lessons that day he inadvertently gave the prince a glimpse of the brand on his right hand.

"I didn't get a good glimpse of your brand." The prince proffered. "I also haven't told anyone what I know."

"That is reassuring." Grima honestly said, trusting in the prince's assurance. "Is that why you admire me? My brand?"

"Not just your brand." The prince said, as he struggled through his embarrassment. "But the fact how accomplished and knowledgeable you are, in spite of the baggage associated with the brand."

Smirking at how the embarrassed prince tried to regain what remains of his composure is rather heartening to the former-dragon deity. Even his admiration to him, no matter how misleading, is rather humbling considering how innocent he is compared to the other royalty he was acquainted with.

Even though he did expect some level of appreciation when tutoring the prince, he certainly didn't expect this level of reverence. It would make him uncomfortable in the future, but it would be useful to play into this considering the earlier conv-.

Grima's thought process went into a hard stop as he began to connect dots the prince unwittingly left behind.

"Your Grace, you said you admire me because of harsh attitudes towards those who bear a brand, correct?" Getting a confused nod in agreement from the prince, Grima moved to his main point. "What of Micaiah then?"

Pelleas opened his mouth to promptly answer the question, but he quickly closed it as it dawned on him what Grima was implying. The horrified look the blue-headed royal was giving off only confirmed his suspicion that Micaiah also bore a brand.

In no way did it mean that Micaiah was one of the 'parentless' that Rafiel once referred too. But this is the sort of information would be more than enough to make such a damaging accusation.

Luckily, it seems Pelleas clearly understood the dangers of such information getting out as his face paled at the realization of the fact.

Shaking his head in slight amusement, Grima snapped the prince out of his world as he got his attention.

"Your Grace, there is no reason to panic." He spoke reassuredly to the prince. "Out of everyone here, I'm the last one here to spill such a secret."

This reasoning visibly relaxed the prince as he finally got a hold of his worries.

"You're right. I'm sure you have first-hand experience of these types of reactions."

"Just-just don't tell Micaiah you know because of me." He nervously pleaded.

"We'll keep that fact to ourselves." Grima said with hidden amusement.

"Thank you Grima, I don't know how I would show my face to Micaiah if she found out I broke my promise to her." Sounding genuinely relieved with Grima's assurance.

"You're worrying too much." Grima said amusement still lacing his tone. "Micaiah isn't the type to hold such a petty grudge."

 _Unless you're this Ike character._

"She's the type to quickly forgive; after explaining to her the situation, of course." He amended.

"You're probably right. She's the exact opposite of a mean old witch. You'll be hard pressed to find someone she's honestly angry with."

In a pause between his words, Grima noticed a short yet discernable sign of recognition in his Grace's eyes before the prince spoke once again.

"You'll also be hard pressed to find someone honestly angry with her." Pelleas voiced out.

Taken of guard with his final statement, Grima noticed the prince looked as if he made up his mind. And a gut-feeling is telling Grima it's about Micaiah.

"Indeed, she's just that much of an enjoyable person." Grima said innocently. "Everyone in the army wants to meet the silver-haired maiden at least once. It's become increasingly difficult to pin her down these days'."

"I wouldn't say that." Pelleas said rather seriously. "In fact I met just her, today."

Shrugging at the statement, Grima gave no other response.

Looking rather unamused, Pelleas shifted his look solely on Grima as he decided to go for broke.

"Grima. Are you avoiding Micaiah?"

"So you know as well." Grima vocalizing his own thoughts.

"So you are?" Pelleas eyeing him critically.

"I said no such thing." Grima immediately said, rebuffing that line of thought immediately. "I'm to presume that Micaiah voiced her concerns to you, as well?"

Looking away, a bit ashamed of himself to assume something like that from Grima. "She's lamented, yes"

Grunting in acknowledgement, Grima closed his eyes' as he once again berated himself for being so transparent and allowing such an assumption run wild.

"Your Grace." Finally opening his eyes. "Believe it or not you're not the first to ask this question. So I will tell you what I told them."

Taking a deep breath, Grima calmly went on.

"I had no intentions of ignoring her for any imaginary slight. My job demanded me else-where and any perceived snubbing was unintentional. To further prove my point I've asked Micaiah for a meeting tonight and I will be discussing my behavior to her, personally."

"Oh." Pelleas dumbly answered.

"I apologize for the snark your grace, but you weren't the first to ask me that exact question. If you feel I should be punished for the disrespect, then I humbly accept." Grima bowing his head.

"No. No need for that." Pelleas said in a panic. "I was just concerned about the status of your relationship."

"You make it sound like we're dating." Pointing out the rather unfortunate choice of words. "But I appreciate your concerns. I really needed that fact pointed out to me."

"You didn't know? That's rather hard to believe, considering how observant you are?" He curiously asked.

"Believe it or not there are things that escape even my eyes; unless explicitly pointed to."

Silently thanking the prince for not pressing the issue further, Grima began to reacquaint himself with today's materials.

"Well if you don't have any other questions, we should probably return to your studies." Picking up one of the tomes lying around. He gave off a meaningful smirk. "How about we do some practical lessons?"

Excitement returning into his eyes, the prince eagerly nodded his head.

"If you think I'm ready."

"You got your theory down, so it's time we put that into practice." He assured.

* * *

Hours after the lessons with the prince, dusk is just beginning its descent upon the camp and by extension, Grima's personal tent. Inside, Grima was occupying himself by carving on a round shaped piece of aged wood; waiting patiently for his guests.

Grima had to admit to himself to being a bit apprehensive of the upcoming meeting, which brings him to his current activity. The intricate symbols' he is engraving onto the wood requires a certain level of concentration and if done improperly; would require him to scrap the whole thing and start from scratch.

So he sat at his desk, carving with tools he just bought from Aimee not even a month ago. Not paying too much attention for his guests to finally re-.

"Grima, are you in?" The familiar feminine voice called just outside his tent.

Taking a quick glance of the inside of his tent to make sure it was presentable; he beckoned for his guests to enter.

Soon, upon entering the tent were the top two people, not on his mind, each of them sporting very surprising expressions. Sothe has his typical hard face that he usually never takes off, but it's tinted with genuine annoyance. Sure, it isn't surprising he is annoyed, but Grima feels it isn't directed towards himself which he expects; rather on something else.

Micaiah on the other hand wore a rather pleasant, yet neutral face; exemplified by the slight smile she wore when their eyes met. He expected a more guarded look from her. Maybe this speaks towards the trust she implicitly puts on him.

Carefully setting the carved wood and tools on his desk, he swung his own chair to the middle of the tent where it completed a circle of chairs he arranged just prior.

With a simple gesture of his hand, he guided the two, to their proper seating arrangement.

"I'm glad the both of you came." Opening the conversation in a professional manner. "Either of you care for a snack? Drinks?"

"I'm well, thank you." Micaiah respectfully turned down. "Sothe?"

"I'm fine." He gruffly said.

"Well I'll just get it out, knowing our company." Immediately getting up to rummage through his belongings.

With his back to his guests, he made sure to take his time as he made some small talk with the both of them.

"So anything exciting about your day?"

"Nothing particular." The pause she had before she answered didn't get past Grima. Good that means he's keeping her off balanced.

"Really? I thought all those soldiers lining up outside your tent would be rather interesting." He said in a rather bored tone as he appeared to be more interested in a small glass cup. "Certainly raised my eyebrow; that's for sure."

"I'm surprised you found the time to notice that?" Sothe crossed his arms accusingly.

"Rather hard not to notice a line that long, Sothe." He casually answered, unperturbed with the taunt. And from the shuffling and hushes he's hearing behind him, Micaiah didn't appreciate such bickering.

"Hope you like wafers and purified water because that's all I have for the moment." Finally returning to the two.

"Thank you for the snacks, bu – Is that a pink wafer?" She pointed at the small mountain of crème fill pink wafers set before her.

"Yes. Strawberry flavored. It was a gift from Muston." Grima answered as he watched Micaiah grab one and promptly chomped it down.

"Muston gifted this to you?" Sothe surprisingly asked as he poured himself and Micaiah some water.

"I'm surprised as you are." He replied, shrugging his shoulders as Micaiah took her time savoring this sugary snack. "He also gifted me some exotic tea, sadly I ran out. So only water now."

"But why? He's also a merchant." Sothe pressed as he grabbed his own pink wafer.

"Maybe because I'm such a frequent customer? I have been doing a lot of business with them since we first met." He proposed.

Sothe merely grunted as his mouth was stuffed with strawberry wafer.

Grima smirked at the two eating up his snacks. If he could be honest, he can understand why Micaiah wanted to relax with him. The calm and laid back atmosphere is something he didn't expect to miss, but now letting it soak-in after a month of constant work, even for a split second, it's refreshing.

It would also be a good idea to not mention the lemon flavored wafers he's keeping away from them.

Just as Grima was about to pick up a wafer, another voice spoke outside his tent.

"Hello? Grima are you in there?" The soft female voice asked.

"Yes Ilyana I'm here. Come right in." Standing from his seat to guide his new guest through his tent. "Please have a seat. Strawberry Wafer?"

"Don't mind if I do." Pleased with the offer of sugary snacks. She took no time to scarf down a single wafer.

All the while; Grimas' other guests weren't surprised with this turn of events, but are nonetheless still taken aback with her gusto.

Grima on the other hand, was smiling to himself as he poured water for himself and the newly arrived guest.

"So tell me Ilyana," Speaking conversationally. "How's my tome treating you?"

"It's a great tome!" She answered after finishing her fifth wafer. "But I haven't had much of a chance to use it. But you already know this."

"Indeed I do. But there is nothing wrong with repeating the facts and besides; not everyone here knows that." He smoothly said as his other two guests sat straighter in their seats. "So just give short crisp answers. Alright?"

With a nod, he continued with the questions.

"Did you bring my tome with you?"

Rummaging through her traveler's bag, she handed a relatively pristine Arc-thunder Tome back to Grima.

"Thank you, now some explanations." Grima swiftly said. "You both understand Ilyana's condition, correct?"

"She has an above-average appetite." Micaiah answered.

"Yes, it's an odd quark. But that isn't the only thing that caught my attention." He shifted forward on his seat to bring out his hands to add a sort of emphasis to his words. Also this is much more comfortable. "Ilyana is an accomplished thundersage and not just that; she has the makings of becoming a true master."

"She has clear aptitude and affinity to her element, has shown clear ability to concisely execute complex and high-level spells and more importantly the willpower to improve and advance her own limits as a mage. You even have an above-average essence reserve, to boot."

The sudden praise took them by surprise as they were very unsure where Grima was going with this. This couldn't be more apparent with Ilyana herself as she shifted awkwardly with a slight blush as she was showered with praise.

"That's . . . rather high acclaim." Sothe said, rather unsure to say.

"Maybe. Yet all of this in spite of her special quarks." He seriously said.

"Wait." Micaiah shaking away her confusion. "What are you implying, Grima?"

"An eating disorder like this would have far reaching consequences in both the physical and spiritual sense." He said quickly. "But besides the inconvenience of physically procuring and consuming the food; there is literally no downsides, whatsoever. In fact you are excelling, as I pointed out earlier.

Letting everything Grima said sink-in, Sothe chimed in. "That is rather strange."

"It doesn't make sense." Grima quickly rebutted, but quickly caught his faux pas. "I mean no offence, Ilyana."

"No offence here." She awkwardly responded.

"Thank you." He honestly thanked. "Now it is this inconsistency that got me curious enough to start enquiring about Ilyana's history. I spoke with a number of people who had a history with her including those in the merchant convoy and those she served with during Ashnard's war such as Zihark and Jill to get a clearer picture of her."

In a panic, Ilyana cut Grima off. "Wait. You were asking people about me?"

"I only asked general questions and everyone was prudent enough not to tell me anything private." Grima then gave her a mischievous look. "And Zihark sang nothing but praises about you."

"I never asked about Zihark." She shot back, perhaps a little too quickly.

"Of course, you didn't." He said rather innocently.

A cough from Micaiah brought Grima back to continue his explanations.

"Anyways, after spending long nights of research going through a number of tomes ranging from the common and benign to the arcane and ancient; I was able to build several theories that could explain her condition." Grima narrated.

"Let me guess you found out what is ailing her?" Sothe snarkly interrupted.

Unperturbed. Grima looked at Sothe rather dumbly. "Well obviously I did, or I wouldn't bother with this meeting."

Blind sided with the casual revelation, the usually composed thunder-sage looked at him with hopeful eyes. "Y-You do?"

"Of course." He said as if he was insulted. "You bear the classic signs of a cursed body."

"I'm cursed?" Ilyana said aloud letting those words be familiar with her lips.

"Indeed. As a dark mage who's worked extensively in this field; the signs point to no other explanation." He said. "And considering the ignorance of the dark arts, it's no wonder this wasn't diagnosed till now."

"If something like this is so obvious, why did it require so much and this long to research?" Sothe openly asked.

Though a valid question, Grima couldn't help but roll his eye's as of course Sothe would single this one.

"Like an open wound on a body, it doesn't require an expert's opinion to find the problem. What does require an expert's opinion would be the wound type and how it got there in the first place?" Grima explained. "And in the realm of curses, witchcraft and hexing; knowing these aspects is paramount."

Roughly elbowing him in the liver, Micaiah both shut-him up and signaled she wished to speak now.

"I'm very ignorant to curses, but why is it important to learn as much of it as possible? Would it not be better to dispel it as quickly as possible?" She inquired.

Nodding his head. Grima answered. "Simply because curses aren't monolithic and as a consequence each curse has to be uniquely dealt with. Now you could quite simply prevent or block curses, but curing a curse is different. In most cases, the safest method to curing a curse is simply applying the curse, but backwards. That is why it's so important to know such details as it would make my life so much easier and safer of course."

"So you can't cure me now?" Ilyana said with disappointment in her tone.

Unconcerned with her look of hopelessness, Grima answered with his usual informative deadpan tone.

"As of removing the curse safely? Not now. I'm more than capable of removing your curse as is, but because of the threat of backlash; it would be much safer to better acquaint myself to the intricacies of your curse to minimize any potential hiccup. This you have my word."

It was clear his words resonated with the thunder-sage as she visibly sat relaxed in her seat.

"How long would it take?" Curious as the end was so close.

Grima's face hardened as he thought over everything. "I don't know. Could be months of research before I could make breakthrough."

"Months? I don't want to be rude, but why would it taking so long?" Sothe asked.

To be fair to Sothe, it is a good question to ask. "To be quite honest I don't know where the curse is emanating from." Receiving their confused looks, he continued his explanation. "I know for sure it's coming from Ilyana, yet her body, soul and mind all remain safe and clean, as far as I know. So locating the vocal point would take the majority of my time."

"With that in mind, I'll like to make a recommendation to you; Vice-Commander." Turning his attention to the ashen-haired girl.

"And what would that be; Adjutant." She returned his formality.

"Until a permanent solution could be safely completed, I recommend Ilyana to be barred from any and all front-line duties, effective immediately."

His calm and levelled words were a complete blindside to everyone in the room. Especially to Ilyana who took pride in her service in the Army; having Grima also recommend it also didn't help things.

"Y-You want m-me out of the War?" She weakly asked. "Is that why you wanted your tome back?"

If her tone of vulnerability had any effect on the tactician, he didn't allow it to show as he made to address her concerns.

"Do not be mistaken and assume I do not value your contributions, in fact, as one of the few mages we have; you are invaluable in many ways."

"If I'm so valued" Ilyana heatedly argued. "Why am I taken out of frontline duties?"

Unperturbed by the growing hostilities, Grima calmly continued. "It's exactly because of that value I recommend this. As the Strategos it is my duty to assess the risks and make my recommendations, appropriately; with the new knowledge of your curse I deemed it an intolerable risk to your person, and others to continue fighting as is.

"I find it hard to believe I'm being pulled out for something I've lived with since I was a child." She accused.

"In no way is this decision made as a reflection of your character, abilities or predicament, but solely on the very real dangers of your curse. I assure you." He empathically said. "Curses if left uncheck present dangers to not only to the individual but to the collective as well."

"How so, Grima?" Sothe asked curiously. Wading through this heated conversation head-on.

"The primary concern here would be mutations of the curse to something even more dangerous, these mutations are borne from external stimuli; ranging from prolonged sunlight to direct hits of magical energy." He warned. "Maybe it'll even be weaponized by a malicious dark mage."

"Is that possible?" Sothe asked incredulously. "Could someone really modify a curse to something even more dangerous?"

"I certainly can." He quickly said without a single hint of doubt.

He let everyone mull through his last comment as he decided to switch tactics.

"It's within the realm of possibility that I'm peddling fear to get my way." He admitted, getting the confused looks he expected. "But at the very least look at things from my point-of-view. I've worked closely with curses for the better part of my life. Its quarks and specifics are known to me as much as it's dangers. So when I recommend it would be best not to underestimate a curse, it should at least behoove you to listen."

Though; his words seem to have the intended effect of silencing his critics. The person he needed to convince was none other than Micaiah, his immediate boss. Who, so far, hasn't utter a single word.

Unlike the other two who clearly is wearing a face of conflict, Micaiah sat silently in deep thought. It's clear she's thinking long and hard over his words, yet to him, it seems her mind is on something entirely different. Almost as if she was concerned with something else entirely.

"Is this the only option you see fit, Grima?" She asked after a good minute of silence passed.

"The only acceptable option." He answered neutrally.

Not responding immediately to his reply, she took her time to think over everything.

"It's unacceptable to reduce our magical capabilities when we are so desperate for skilled mages." She declared.

"That's unavoidable if any complications arise in the future." He retorted.

"How about a stop-gap then?" She proposed.

"A stop-gap?" Grima questioned. "You mean to temporarily halt the effects of the curse?"

"And to also keep her in frontline duties." She added. "You're capable, are you not?"

Tapping his index finger on his knee-cap, he answered her challenge. "There isn't a conventional method like that."

"And unconventionally?" She pushed.

Looking away, Grima suppressed an amused smirk that was threatening to show itself.

"I could put a Hex on top of her curse." He said half-heartedly. "But it would be difficult to conjure one up in such short-notice. Never-mind the complications of such an arrangement."

"Anything on the simpler side of things?" She pushed on.

Quirking an eyebrow at the suggestion, he eventually answered. "I could build a charm to alleviate the worst of the curse; on a temporary basis."

"A charm?" Ilyana questioned. "Like from a fortune teller?"

"Sorta. Except for the fact that it works." He mockingly answered, very much insulted by the comparison.

"Would it impede her in any way?" Micaiah asked seriously.

"The charm would be rather large, require skin contact and be rather uncomfortable to wear." He answered. "Also the stares she'll get from wearing such an ugly piece of jewelry."

"But would it impede her fighting ability." She repeated.

"It wouldn't; so long as I made it." He confidently answered.

"Very well. Then this will be the course you'll take." Micaiah authoritively said. "Ilyana is not too be pulled from active combat, so long as she wears the charm or when the curse is finally lifted."

"Will that suffice, Grima?" She questioned as if he had a choice.

"It is your prerogative. So it will be done." He acquiesced.

"And you, Ilyana?" Turning to said Mage

"Yes, thank you Micaiah." She bowed her head. "And thank you Grima, I may have disagreed, but you did it for my sake. So thank you."

Grima did not immediately respond, but he eventually nodded his head.

"Of course, no offense was taken." He calmly said. "Well that taken care of; you may go now. And do expect me a week from now with the completed charm."

With Ilyana's leave, an awkward silence descended upon the remaining guests. Both uncomfortable and curious with their continued presence, Grima quickly stood up to clean the mess that was his snacks.

"That certainly went better than expected." He said conversationally.

"And where did you expect this to go?" Sothe taking the bait.

"I'll admit I was very prepared to come down on this very hard." Not bothering to turn, too busy with cleaning the crumbs and uneaten snacks. "Luckily that didn't come to pass."

When the expected retort did not come, Grima took no heed as he took his time organizing his mess on the desk. Finally, bothering to turn to his guests; he was surprised the reason for Sothe's silence.

Micaiah; it seems, was closely watching Grima with a stare that straddled the definition of a glare. Sothe was so surprised at the intensity he kept his mouth shut for fear of directing this wrath to himself.

If anything could be described of Grima; it's that he isn't ruled by fear. His experience of the harsh environments of his home in the Thabes labyrinth and wider chaos that was the Great Schism, gave him the repertoire to at least prepare him for the unexpected.

But under the scrutinized scowl, he couldn't help but be put-off-guard.

"Uhhh" A first for him for sure. "Can I help you?"

"I don't remember giving the impression I enjoy being played." She unamusedly said while crossing her arms.

"Playing you?" He dumbly repeated. "Who's playing you?"

"You." She succinctly said. "Don't think for a second that little show you performed convinced me."

"Show? Micaiah, I don't know what you're th-"

"I simply do not buy in the fact our strategos would put us in a tactical disadvantage for purely altruistic reasons." She interrupted with a stronger tone of authority that unnerved even Robin.

But that shock was only a momentary respite for Grima as a small, amused smirk began to compliment his blood-red eyes.

"I don't know if I should be grateful by how well saw through me." He began to compliment, without a hint of shame. "Or be offended by the off-handed insult."

"Knowing you, both."

Grima couldn't help but let out an amused chuckle by the deadpanned response. "I'll take the compliment then."

"Just curious, what part of the _show_ did not _amuse_ you?" He asked.

"The manufactured nature of the problem." Still unwilling to relax her tone. "You knew the answer to the problem at hand; from the very beginning. So why even present a choice on the matter?"

"Would you believe me if I said that I believe it's important to have some sort of agency, personal or otherwise, when the topic involves curses, hexes and charms?" He seriously said. "Subjects that the masses tend to refer as taboo."

"Partly." Admitting to herself the logic of his words. "But I would contend that you still have an underlying motive for all of this."

"That's fair." He readily admitted, best not to dance around the issue since he's been so thoroughly exposed. "And to answer your question, I did have a motive."

"But I assure you, nothing nefarious was intended. I merely wanted to see what you'll do." He amended.

"I thought I was passed being tested?" She asked half seriously/half-jokingly taking his assurances at face value.

"I wouldn't go so far." Grima said on the more serious side. "The intention was to test that foresight yours."

This admission actually got the vice-commanders entire demeanor to change drastically. One minute she was commanding and the next she looked genuinely exposed. And Sothe is here to witness all of it.

Not the most tactical move he could have made.

"You were scheming behind her back?" Sothe accused.

"You take it too far, Sothe. Never was my intention to learn any secret Micaiah didn't want exposed." He defended himself. "Merely to learn certain traits of her seer abilities within the narrow contexts of decision-making."

"That doesn't change the fact-"

A gentle hand from Micaiah stopped Sothe from laying into Grima.

"Regardless of my feelings." She began. "It would've been prudent to at least ask me."

"I understand your feelings completely and I apologize. I promise something like this would not happen again." Grima immediately backed down.

But this only garnered a more critical eye from the vice-commander.

"And yet you still did it." She merely sighed at the whole situation. In her honest opinion, she probably deserved this sort of scrutiny for her rather unpredictable decision at Terin. It would make sense the over-analytical Grima would try to make sense of it.

"Did you learn anything from your little stunt, Grima?" More curious than anything.

"It might not seem a lot, but it's enough." He truthfully said.

"Then I won't ask." She dismissed the topic. "But don't expect to be easily forgiven for this."

That would satisfy Sothe for the time being.

"That's completely understandable." He accepted.

"That's good to hear." She nodded her head as something popped into her head. "Since we're being open to each other, I would like for you to answer a question of mine."

With his full attention, it would be for the best to be blunt.

"Is there any reason for you avoiding me?"

"I'm glad you brought that up." Grima gratefully said, much to Micaiah's surprise. "Well first I want to, once again, apologize for my behavior."

"I never intended to avoid you, but it has come to my attention that I gave the impression of such a thing. So I want to unequivocally state that I have nothing against your person and to reiterate that fact; I want to invite you to dinner, tonight."

"Dinner?" Taken off guard with the out-of-nowhere invitation.

"Yes, just a setting so we can reconnect. Sothe's invited too." Looking at the bodyguard without any doubt he would come, with or without an invitation.

"A bit out of the blue, but so long as you understand then I'll be happy to accept." She eventually said; a bit relieved how easy this went.

"Thank you for the invitation." Sothe neutrally answered, with a bit encouragement from Micaiah's elbow.

"Fantastic, I'll see you two at the mess hall. I'll reserve a table." He turned back to his desk. "Hope you like chicken-broth in a bread-bowl."

Though he intended for this to be the end of their conversation, he can't help but think he's forgetting something.

"You look disappointed, Micaiah." His words catching her off guard. "Any reason for that?"

"Disappointed? I don't understand why you would think that." She deflected. Though it only made it even more obvious.

"You're not one for subtleties." He said appraisingly. "I can understand why Sothe would be so gloomy, but yours is more elusive."

"Disappointed how this was resolved in an anti-climactic fashion?" He thought out loud.

Judging by her refusal to look at him, he was at the very least; warm.

"I just don't understand how you could be so casual about this." She tiredly admitted.

"Remaining calm and collected in the face of adversity is an important trait a leader must possess." Letting his inner-instructor shine for the moment.

"Trying to teach us something, Professor?" Sothe sarcastically called.

"Nonsense. Just practicing what I would say to His Grace." He innocently said.

"How is the Prince's progress, by the way?" Micaiah quickly asked; making sure Sothe doesn't make himself more of an ass. "You're already teaching him about leadership?"

"I wouldn't go so far. He's made amazing progress in the magical department. I only scratched the surface of leadership." Grima modestly recounted.

"The fact he was attentive during the assembly today is good progress, though." Micaiah complimented.

"Yet he didn't participate or ask questions. Not a weakness per say; something to work on." Grima mulled aloud. "Though privately, he and I had some interesting discourse; as of late. Hopefully I can translate this progress to our assemblies."

"That reminds me." He suddenly said. "I heard something very interesting from His Grace."

Sothe looked on with interest on his face. "The Prince?" Not paying attention at his increasingly nervous VIP.

"Indeed. He was very delighted at my lessons today. It seems he met someone who he feels he could connect with on a very personal level."

"You're saying he has a lover of some sort?" Sothe derisively said. Annoyed that Grima would bring up such frivolous rumors.

"No, nothing of the sort." He chuckled at the thought. "More like someone who he could sympathize with."

"Someone whose gone through similar struggles, brought upon by a brand." He revealed.

Grima's serious tone at the end along with his pointed look he's giving to Micaiah; gave Sothe the necessary clue to realize what he was implying.

"He never got the chance to elaborate on his words as I made it clear this was an inappropriate topic to discuss, considering." He absent-mindedly pointed out.

"Grima th-the mark is a-a contract-" Micaiah desperately tried to find the words, but he didn't give her the chance to fully compose one.

"Though I agreed to the Prince's demand that I wouldn't mention this, but I bring this up to illustrate a point. So please do not be angry with him for this blunder."

"Honest?" Sothe defensively spat. "You're the type who has an ulterior motive to things, so what's your angle on this?"

"Angle?" He angrily repeated. "I'm willing to humor your previous accusations, but this latest one is plain insulting."

"Then why bring it up, then?"

"Because I wanted to voice how such a mark, whatever it means, doesn't mean anything to me."

"And why should I believe that?" He forced-fully said.

"Because I've been there!" He heatedly said without much of a thought.

His confession won him an almost wondrous stare from Micaiah and a less critical one from Sothe. Progress I guess.

"Unlike the Prince, I hold no delusions of what that brand truly represents, and Sothe's very aggressive defense only reinforces my assumptions." He calmly stated.

"Y-you understand?" Micaiah hesitantly asked.

Grima, with all his wisdom only shrugged. "I've always knew I was some other, never truly fitting in with either of my bloodlines. Always treated with suspicion, behind my back and my front."

"You-You're serious?" Sothe barely let out.

Not letting mere words answer him, he once again, dramatically revealed his mark to his guests in front him. The gasps he heard were almost enough to make him laugh.

"I do not fully know where my blood originates, but I do know I'm partly 'Beorc'." This was the truth. He never found out where that alchemist got a sample of Divine Dragon blood. Not even with the help of Bantu and Xane.

"Why tell us this." She finally asked after recomposing herself.

A good question. Though he did rationalize this action in his head, speaking it aloud would not go over well.

"Spontaneity?" Once again accompanied with a shrug. "Earlier I did inform Nailah and Rafiel of my 'situation'; so it's only fair I also inform you two as well."

"So you're just going down the list now?" Sothe asked as he was finally getting into grips of the excitement.

"Heavens no." He dismissed with a wave of his hand. "It would unnecessarily complicate things going forward."

"Besides I trust you two. One of you more than the other." He good-naturedly said.

Sothe only huffed in annoyance, though he didn't take it personally as feelings were at least mutual.

"Grima, I-I don't know what to say." She nervously let out.

"You're not required to say anything. Just acknowledge this fact going forward." He clinically said.

Put off by his words, something inside Micaiah couldn't just accept things at face value.

"That's it? Just move on?" Past resentment beginning to spill into her words. "Is that what you are currently content with?"

Intrigued with the sudden burst of emotion, Grima decided to play along. "Whatever I'm content with is irrelevant. The bottom-line is if it gets in the way; then it needs to be buried."

"But wouldn't it be better if everyone just accepted you; as is?" She questioned.

Grima couldn't help but feel the nostalgic feelings of his past with Bantu and Xane; coming up feats and accomplishments that would impress the Divine Dragons to accept him. Only to come up short every time.

"Once upon a time I believed in that dream. But now I know the futility of those efforts." He said somberly.

Micaiah made to retort, but Grima was able to stay her words with a raised hand.

"But in light of that, I still treasure the time I spent and the friends I made trying to achieve such a goal. No matter how lofty it proved to be; it was those experiences that made me who I am. Bit jaded, yet still whole."

Those were his honest feelings and regrets he put out there with the intention of ending this conversation. But color his surprise that Micaiah didn't fully accept that sentiment.

"But you still wish it was different, don't you?" She threw the question at back him. "And don't lie."

'How presumptuous of her.' He internally sighed. 'Not that it's entirely a bad thing.'

"Like I said once upon-"He began his words, but they ended before his next breath, with a quick look of her eyes. They still had fire for sure, but he could tell that it burned not from her passion, instead for some validation.

"I do." He said eventually.

"I honestly do." He repeated.

"Then let me carry your dreams for you." She declared.

"Carry my dreams?" He dumbly repeated. "Do you have any idea what that means?"

"I would never accept such a burden if I didn't know what it entails." She resolutely stated.

"That's not what I meant." Letting his harshness show. "We are in a middle of a war. We need to prioritize on that fact; not on a vanity project!"

"And soon that war will end." Not backing down an inch. "It would be then, when progressive reforms would be introduced."

Grima repressed an eye-roll to her blind idealism.

"I'll give you that his Grace would be sympathetic to your cause. But those reforms would be stonewalled through-out the process; all the while you'll be demonized for even thinking of such a thing." He warned. Not just to Micaiah, but to Sothe as well.

"I would expect nothing less." She challenged, to the dismay of Sothe.

"But are you prepared, politically I mean?" He questioned. "Since you took this job, you've eschewed any and all political considerations."

"This is war, like how you always remind us." She threw back his earlier words.

"Indeed it is, but that doesn't mean political intrigue disappears while at war. In fact it flourishes." He gave a long sigh at the reminder. "Do you have any idea how much arm-twisting I've done with Izuka and the Queen-Mother, alone?"

"More than you can expect." He quickly answered. "And I can assure you in the post-war environment they'll challenge your authority as they try to do now."

"They've did what?" An outraged Sothe said.

"Key word here is 'try'. All their efforts were done in the classic court intrigue tactic of snide whispers and rumors, which yielded next to nothing for them." He waved off Sothe's concerns. "It failed mostly because of the environment and your super-stardom popularity with the common soldiery."

And by the fact he worked against the two by pitting them against each other. But he didn't speak that fact.

"But if this were court?" He let those words hang for dramatic effect. "Let's just say I have a negative opinion of things going smoothly for you."

Unperturbed by his words, she took a defiant posture. "Then I'll learn to over-come the political head-banging by bypassing them entirely for a bottom-up approach for reforms."

Grima internally scoffed at the idea. He didn't exactly see an easy approach for reforms from the top, but neither was it impossible. The problem with this approach is that even if the reforms are passed; that the populace would accept such sweeping legislation. This problem is magnified in the bottom-up approach Micaiah is suggesting.

The masses are ignorant and easily impressionable with fear and other nonsense. Making it difficult for them to look beyond their preconceived stereotypes for something abstract, like equality between species.

Though Grima had the mind to vocalize such harsh realities. It would, in the end not benefit him in the slightest to do such a thing.

And Grima has to admit, even though he scoffs at her idealism, a certain part of him couldn't help but approve her determination and ideals.

So he decided to hold his tongue.

For now at least.

"You're really committed to this, aren't you?" He sighed at the sight of her nodding head. "I'll admit right now I'm not entirely partial to this."

"But I understand how much this means to you, so you have my tacit approval. Whatever that means."

"Thank you Grima, though it would be helpful if I had your full endorsement. So I'll take this compromise, for now." Dissatisfied, but no less happy with this result.

For his part, Grima shrugged his shoulders, not committing a verbal answer.

"Well, I've taken enough of your time. I'll be seeing you at dinner later tonight." She began as she rose from her seat.

"Of course." He led the two out of his tent. Pretending to not notice Sothe's rather concerned face.

Alone at last, Grima made his way to his desk to busy himself with completing Ilyana's new charm. Though the charm is largely complete with only the time sensitive ingredients left to collect, process and bind.

So he simply made himself look busy.

"That went well." Robin opined. "Seems everything went as expected, and then some."

"Indeed." Grima flatly agreed.

"Micaiah is a real treat. With how forceful she can be; she could conceivably be mistaken as arrogant." He posited.

"Indeed." Grima grunted.

"Though one has to wonder if this could carry over and create meaningful change." Robin couldn't help but give an approving smile. "Truly we are witnessing a legend in the making."

"Indeed."

Quickly changing tune, Robin addressed the uninterested Grima. "Okay do you have anything significant to contribute?"

"Do you?" He accused, but evoked no emotion whatsoever.

Sighing as he was beginning to sound like a broken record, Robin got to the bottom of his curiosity.

"Just tell me why you included them?"

"The opportunity presented itself." He said so simply

"I doubt it has anything to do with convenience." He alleged.

"Believe it or not; the earlier I reestablish the center of our relationship, the less headaches I'll have in the future." He uninterestedly answered.

"That doesn't answer the why?" Robin pressed.

"You said it yourself. She's a legend in the making." He repeated. "The more truthful I am to her, the more trust she puts onto me."

"So you did have an angle." Robin repeating earlier words.

"None of what I do is Noble." Grima angrily snapped back. "All of it done for my ends, alone."

"I'm pretty sure I said something of the sort so sooner you realize this; the easier it is swallow all this." He said with finality.

Unperturbed, Robin gave him his last words. "Is it easy for you to swallow, Grima?"

He never did answer that question.

* * *

The sentry couldn't help, but internally curse his terrible luck. He drew the shortest straw of the lot and is currently on duty for the graveyard shift. Again. Even the beautiful bright light of the full moon couldn't distract his tired, cold shivering.

Yet it could've been worse.

He could've been alone

"Heaven's sake another night of this malarkey." His friend shivered beside him.

"Well you should feel lucky now because it's morning."

"You're shittin me! We have another 3 hours of this?" His cold friend exclaimed rather loudly.

"Shh." He shushed his friend.

"Don't shush me when I'm complaining." He indignantly said.

"I'm shushing you because someone is coming!" He quietly said as he properly holstered his weapon.

"Who goes there?!" He shouted to the approaching figure.

"Someone who means you no harm." The hooded figure replied back.

Instantly straightening his posture he quickly checked if his partner did the same. Confirming he was at least respectable, he greeted the hooded person with a clean, albeit shaking salute.

"Sir, isn't it a bit late for a late-night stroll." He greeted.

"Good morning to you as well soldier. Quite the beautiful moon we have here today, don't we?" He returned the greeting rather enthusiastically.

"It is beautiful, sir." He nervously replied. Though he could not see beneath the hood, the voice is someone he wouldn't mistake.

"Well I better not waste anymore of your time, I better get going." The figure started to move past them.

"Sir, do you intend to leave the camp?" He couldn't help but ask.

"Why yes, is there a problem?" He could practically hear the impatience in his words.

Damn him and his mouth.

Luckily before he could make more a bigger hole for himself, his buddy was there to rescue him.

"Out to collect more samples sir?"

"Something a little more substantial this time, but essentially yes." Directing his attention to the other sentry.

"Wouldn't want to keep you waiting then, sir." He answered.

"Indeed, have a good morning you two." He waved a goodbye as he walked away from the sentries into the dark forest.

Visibly releasing a sigh of relief, the sentry could only look at his buddy with a thankful look.

"Thanks for the cover; I thought he was going to chew me a new one for a second."

He eyed his friend with an amused look. "You don't talk to the tactician much, do you?"

"Well, no" Scratching his head in embarrassment. "Bit of a rule of mine to steer clear of the big wigs. Learned that from Ashnards army."

"I hear you, but this is a different Daein army." Turning away from the dark forest and towards the large expanse of lamps and tents. "Though the tactician may be standoffish, he means well. And he is leagues better than that creep, Izuka."

"I guess you're right." Feeling more at ease. "But if I had to talk with one of the officers I would choose the Maiden."

"Who wouldn't?" Rolling his eyes at this familiar topic.

"Hear me out."

Much to his friends displeasure; he had, many times. An adverse aspect of friendship.

Moving deeper through the forest without any aids of light beside the full moon, Grima swiftly navigated through the brush in silence. Yet even in this lonely light; he too is a victim to idle chatter.

"They were nice." Robin spoke up. "Maybe you could expand your social cir-"

"No."

"Now you're just being impolite. What would Micaiah say?" Robin cheekily said.

"She would probably agree that it would be good idea to connect with the common soldier." He clinically said.

"Uhh. And?" Taken aback by the serious answer.

"It's unnecessary for me to play as the 'caring commander' since that role is perfectly suited with Micaiah."

With a loud sigh, Robin mused aloud his frustrations. "You really know how to kill the mood."

"Perfect timing then, we're here." Grima told his passenger.

Stopping into an open field, Grima paused to admire the still tall grass as it reflected the light of the moon to create a calming effect on the area.

Though this did not last long as he came to this spot for a purpose.

Setting down his satchel; Grima began to remove a conical like flask, he then filled the flasks half-way with purified water and set a large glass prism with arcane symbols etched on its surface to direct the moonlight into the flask.

With this setup, Grima will be able to collect pure moonlight dew which will be an important component to Ilyana's charm that will act as a reservoir for any excess essence.

Sadly the process of collection would take hours and need constant supervision.

Luckily, Grima had another reason for coming out tonight.

Taking a step back from his setup; Grima observed his surroundings until he suddenly shouted out.

"You know it's rude to just stand there and stare. So why don't you join me."

When not even the wind dared to move, Grima quickly grew annoyed by how stubborn his 'guest' is becoming.

"You know I can easily flush you out with a single spell." To emphasize his point he floated his tome with only a simple gesture of his hand. Letting the tome make an orbit around him. "So let's make it easy for the two us and come out willingly."

With that last remark, he finally turned to his right where a shadowy figure came out of the dense brush. This figure had brown hair and covered with matching clothing, head to toe; only his eyes remained uncovered with the same brown as his hair.

Judging from the many blades on his person and skills in stealth, he looked to be an assassin by trade. An uncomfortable sight to behold. Especially with the knowledge that this assassin was stalking nearly every important member in the DLA with near impunity since they left Terin.

Of course this was done with the unknowing oversight of Grima; who just happens to be nearby when the rogue was tailing a target. Either it be strategy meetings with Tauroneo, Tea with the queen mother, arcane practice with the Prince, even small talk with that slime-ball; Izuka. A lot of small talk with Izuka.

He was nearby, ensuring this prowler didn't have the opportunity for anything too ambitious.

Though his presence to him is a poor secret. The reason for him being here eludes him. Though he did strike off a couple of possibilities.

He isn't an agent for the Occupation or Begnion as a whole.

This became obvious with the lack of surveillance towards Micaiah. Though Prince Pelleas is the nominal leader with Tauroneo his head general. The de facto heart of this army is centered on Micaiah.

Her sudden disappearance would spell doom for a free Daein, so the lack of effort on this front show his objectives lie elsewhere.

Objectives that benefit a third unknown party. A third party that Grima cannot hope to unmask without cooperation.

Cooperation that is standing right in front of him.

"Well good morning to you, my name is Grima. The Adjutant Strategos of the Daein Liberation Army." He said formally. "But you already know that."

Silence.

"The silent type, I see. That's alright all I want you to do is listen." Confident at his hand.

"Seventy thousand." The rogue suddenly said.

"Excuse me?" He questionably asked.

"Seventy thousand gold or I'm not listening."

Looking at him thoughtfully, Grima decided to play along.

"I don't have that kind of funds. But I do have something that could work as a workable substitute."

Taking his silence that he was listening, Grima let his offer drop.

"Izuka."

"What about him?" The intruder eventually asked, letting no outward reaction come out.

A professional, indeed.

Shrugging at the question. "It's just I noticed you spent a lot of time following him."

" _A lot_ of time around him." He repeated and highlighted.

"And if I said I did?" He cautiously asked.

 _Gotcha_. "Well that's for you to listen."

Silently glaring at the dark mage as he knew he got him in a bind. With a reluctant nod, Grima relaxed as began his spiel.

"I have proposal that I feel would benefit the both of us."

* * *

 **A/N. If you're wondering. No, new updates will not be this long. The process for writing this chapter was so exceptional, I've re-thought my entire writing process to prevent exactly this from happening, in the future. Hopefully.**

 **So please review and tell me your ups and downs for this chapter. Anything and everything helps.**

 **18,091 before Author notes.**


	8. Chapter 7 It isn't so Simple

**A.N. I'll apologize for the lateness for this chapter. Life has thrown a lot of balls at me, as of late. Resulting on me sitting on the draft for weeks before I sent it anywhere. I do hope the simplicity of this chapter doesn't offend. The more exciting stuff should happen in the next chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 7 It isn't so Simple

If you took the time to ask Robin what he hated the most; the answer would be quick, with a light sprinkle of loathing. The Grimleal. He would be well within his right to think so. Never mind the lives they've used and thrown away. This revulsion of his ran deeper and was simply more personal.

The entirety of Robin's life was defined, solely, by his conflict with them. From his childhood life as a runaway with his mother, to direct war with Chrom and the rest of the shepherds. And of the course the pièce de résistance; the very reason to why they hunted him down so zealously. His so called destiny. The very reason he was conceived.

Even now, such dark thoughts would bring such anger and vitriol, that to those who cared to know him, would fail to truly understand the depths of his abyss. So at first glance, it would be a surprise to many, to find Robin so concerned with said apocalyptic dragon. But as a tactician, it is out of necessity that he must be open-minded to new information. Especially from someone who has first-hand knowledge.

So it was Naga; who came to him with a proposal about what to do with Grima after his defeat. Though he was ready to watch the source of all his life pain; disappear forever. He allowed Naga to say her piece. Knowing that he would hear Grima's complicated history. Knowing that the dragon he came to fear and detests all his life; is not the true wings of despair. He was even prepared to hear that Grima was some sort of anti-hero in his time. All of it; with the intention, that despite his personal suffering and the sufferings of those close to him. That Grima deserved some sort of decency, or worse.

Yet he wasn't prepared to what he listened too. Sure, the contents of the information were everything he expected. Yet it was the raw emotion, in which Naga told her story that took him by surprised. The absolute shame she held for herself; as she detailed all her actions and those of the other Divine dragons, towards Grima. This wasn't some nebulous regret of "could've done more". This was a clear acknowledgement of the lies and deceit she helped perpetuate for the sole purpose of stringing along a desperate, yet useful, individual. She gave herself absolutely no defense on her conduct, and would constantly remind Robin of the sheer arrogance of their own superiority that helped contribute their decisions towards the 'lesser dragon'. Even with the reasoned counsel of Bantu and Xane, who had first-hand experience of Grima, to quickly change tune, she arrogantly and heartlessly continued the charade that would have dire consequences to Robin and everyone he cared about, in the future.

So he listened; with his newly cleared mind, the proposal of not a goddess, but a humbled leader with a plan in mind.

So it is with great dismay that Robin is witnessing a return of old habits of Grima. This of course doesn't strike him as completely bad; in all likelihood, this seems to be a return to his true of form. Wildean wit and all. Nevertheless, this is exactly the kind of conduct that worries Robin, as this is the sort of behavior that eventually landed Grima in hot-water. Of course it was much more complicated then. Yet the worries persist.

Worst of all, as the most knowledgeable person of Grima; he is in the worst position to induce positive change. Though his words are often heard, they are less likely to be heeded in a way he intended. And worse of all, as the primary victim of his actions, Grima holds a certain level of pity and sorrow towards Robin, which creates a constant barrier between the two. The two certainly made strides into normalizing their relationship, yet their exchanges are more professional rather than anything that resembles a real connection. It's completely understandable he would feel this way, yet when the time comes when he needs a friend. He would find himself alone, completely cut-off from the rest of world with a shell of his own creation.

Yet, no matter how imposing, all it takes is that one person to break that outer shell. For Robin it was Chrom. Finding an analogous copy here is a tall order; if not impossible. Luckily for Robin, he's stubborn bird to finish whatever task that is given to him. So with plenty of perseverance, luck and arm-twisting; he should be able to nudge Grima on the right path.

And in Robins' own opinion, despite Grima's own words and actions, that night conversations are the most promising towards fulfilling Robin's mission.

So with only a few whispered reminders, he was able to get Grima to make a run to the merchant's convoy to replenish his depleted tea reserves. Silently hoping the bits of information he heard from last night's dinner would ring true, Robin remained silent and aloof to his striding host. Just as he was beginning to lose hope, he heard the familiar feminine voice of a young woman.

"Oh? Grima. What brings you here?" Micaiah asked cheerfully.

"The balls in your court now." Robin silently remarked.

* * *

Taking in the whole picture of his smiling, white haired cousin, Grima reciprocated the greetings.

"Greetings to you as well, Micaiah. I'm just going to shop some items at the Merchants convoy." He answered.

"You're by yourself today?" Noting the green-haired ninja's absence.

"Believe it or not, Sothe and I aren't joined by the hip." She lightheartedly retorted.

"Could've fooled me." Grima said in a way that made it difficult if he was serious or not. "I take it you're going to the Merchant's convoy as well?"

"Indeed I am. I did say something to that effect last night." She arched her left eyebrow, curiously.

"Did you now? I was too busy with last night's food." He playfully said not caring to look at her.

Shaking her head in disapproval, Micaiah ignored his last remark as she changed subjects. "Well if you're not busy, we should hurry to the Merchants convoy before they are sold out of whatever you need."

"You're probably right." He quickly agreed. "Though I'm not entirely partial on this 'we'."

"Excuse me?" She quickly turned to her companion. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, it's just you're usually with someone, usually Sothe." Grima explained. "I'll hate to steal Sothes's place."

"Trust me when I say this. I don't need another Sothe in my life." Scoffing at his suggestion.

"I was implying that I would be replacing him." Grima extrapolated. "Violently perhaps."

For his last comment, Grima was on the receiving end of an unexpected punch to his left arm. Courtesy of Micaiah.

"You're insufferable." She commented as she proceeded to walk on without him, though it was clearly in jest, just like her mild battering.

Quickly making up the distance from his unexpected assault, Grima lightly smirked at the light mage.

"You're in a good mood."

"Well I did bat an annoying fly." Micaiah shot back.

"You wound me." He said with an exaggerated flinch. "Seriously, you're in a good mood."

"Is that so perplexing?" She asked curiously.

"Not at all. You've been in high spirits for the past week." He explained.

"The past week had surprises, but mostly on the good side." She regarded to him.

"I assume the dinners we've had for the past week had something to do with it?" He asked, fully aware of her answer.

"Among other things." She crisply replied.

"That's sounds like one of my answers." Grima chuckled. "Oh, Sothe would openly weep if that were the case."

Micaiah openly smiled at his joke, dramatics aside, she couldn't help but agree that Sothe wouldn't take too kindly in mimicking Grima.

Examining the girl, Grima couldn't help but note cheerfulness.

"You're in a good mood." Repeating himself once again with a serious tone.

Micaiah quizzically returned his look.

"You say that as if it's a bad thing."

"Just an observation." He deflected.

This time; it was Micaiah who appraised Grima.

"If you say so." She simply said.

At that last comment, the two of them fell into an agreeable silence. It wasn't awkward nor did they feel it was necessary to continue their little chat. Just walking beside each other was enough to ward off any sort uncomfortable feelings.

And in no time at all, they finally reached the Merchants Convoy.

"Ah, Micaiah. Grima. A pleasure seeing you two." The jolly Muston happily greeted.

"Muston, how are you on this fine day?" Micaiah returned the greeting with equal exuberance.

"Same old, same old, lass." Muston bellowed. "Are you here for the usual?"

"Yes, just a restock of the pleasantries'."

"I'll be sure to send word to Aimee." After addressing Micaiah, the bear of a man turned to her new partner. "I see you didn't bring Sothe with you today."

"He's rather busy today." She plainly said.

To the untrained eye; Muston's disinterested grunt at the statement would mean just that, yet to Grima he noticed that there was a slight relief of tension that left Muston's shoulders. He couldn't help but pity the merchant and was likely; the reason for Micaiah's bodyguard's current absence.

"Boy." His musings thoroughly disturbed, Grima shifted his attention to the bear of man who called out. Specifically to him.

"Did you have any business today or you're just escortin the lovely lady here?"

Though Grima is much older than the man, he thought it would be in poor taste to correct the assumption.

"I for one don't think Micaiah needs my services to come down here." He shot back. "And yes, I do have some business here."

After giving out a hearty laugh, Muston went right down to business.

"So then; anything you currently fancy?"

"First off, did my order come in?"

"Your special order?" He thoughtfully said aloud. "Not today. We're getting close to the border, so come back in a couple of days."

Though this was not unexpected, he couldn't help feel a slight feeling of disappointment. Though he nodded his head in acceptance to this delay. He could go a couple of days without new tomes to read.

"I also would like to order some things, as well."

"More books?" Muston asked with a raised eyebrow. "Boy, you need a hobby."

Grima shook his head. "I don't just order paperback."

Ignoring his other words and Muston's look of disbelief, he continued.

"That tea you gifted me, I'm wondering if you have any more in stock."

"The Golden-lemon blend?" Muston pulled from his memory. "An exotic product on the pricey side of the spectrum."

"Yes, we should still have them in stock." He eventually confirmed.

"Fantastic. I'll take four cases." Ignoring the interested look from Micaiah.

"Alright." Muston committing the order to pen and paper. "I'll be sure to deliver your order to your quarters by tomorrow."

"And the cost?" He questioned as he rummaged his pockets for gold.

"It's on the house." Not bothering to look up from his scribbling.

"Excuse me?" Stopping his rummaging. With a surprised look on his face.

Looking up, Muston gave Grima a curious look.

"Is there a problem?"

"This would be the second time you gifted me something, Muston." Grima plainly said.

"And you're complaining about receiving said freebies?" Muston curiously retorted.

"That doesn't sound very grateful." Micaiah inserted, making a poor job in hiding her smugness.

"You stay out of this." He quickly warned his immediate superior before returning his attention back to the merchant." This goes beyond just simple generosity."

"As an important figure within the DLA; I have to keep in mind the optics of the situation." He explained.

"And this is the sort of situation that calls for such a thing?" Muston incredulously questioned.

"Indeed. If word gets out that I've been accepting gifts from the merchant's convoy; I run the risk of being accused of bias for any decision that may or may not benefit the Merchants convoy." Both Muston and Micaiah looked very alarmed at Grima's words. "Additionally, others might find it necessary to send their own gracious gifts as a means to level the playing field."

"You're not corrupt." Muston resolutely using the words he aptly avoided.

"Thank you. "Accepting the compliment." Though I hope you understand why accepting would give mixed messages."

Looking suddenly self-conscious, Muston looked to Grima. "And my earlier gift. Would that fall into this as well?"

"Let's put it like this; you're a sly merchant." Grima said with a devious smile. "You wanted your potential customer to try; first hand, one of your products. And when they inevitably get hooked. You hit them with a price."

"You saying that makes me not want to gift anything to you in future." Muston emptily retorted

"You are a sly merchant." Grima repeated.

Shaking his head, Muston watched Grima. "If you're that insistent; then I guess you'll have to pay."

Taking amusement at the situation, Muston took a second look at his notes and after making additional marks on the piece of paper, turned back to his customer.

"That'll be 50 pieces of gold, I even put in a discount for you."

Grima instantly frowned. "You're very stubborn with treating me this way."

"Consider this a reward for what ya doin for Ilyana." Muston casually waving of his concerns.

"You're aware?" He accusingly questioned, in a curious sort of way.

Muston chuckled at the question. "We were aware long before she came to us with the good news."

"It didn't take long for us to realize the reason for your snooping and questions; though the credit for putting two and two together belongs to Aimee." Muston answered the unexpressed question.

"And you're earlier gifts?" Grima asked this time.

"I fully admit, your curiosities with Ilyana did play a role in the decision of your gifts." Muston shrugged with the admission.

Grima gave the merchant an appraised look. "Would've been better if she told you after things were done." Grima's look suddenly grew worried.

"Hopefully she only told you." He mumbled to himself.

"You're confident that it's only an eventuality." Muston not catching or ignoring Grima's last words.

"Of course. I just need time."

"Then as one of her parents by proxy, consider this a thank you." Muston gratefully extended.

Seeing the dangers of denying him this, Grima shook his head. "Very well."

Reaching to his waist, he removed a pouch and threw it at the merchant. Judging by the sounds it made by landing on Muston's hand, it was full of coins. Payment for the agreed upon goods and services.

"I'll like the tea by the end of the day." With that last statement, Grima hastily left the merchants convoy.

Not wanting to be left behind, Micaiah bade her farewell as well, as she hurriedly made to catch up to the tactician.

Muston looked on as Micaiah quickly caught up to the retreating figure and judging by their postures, she was at him, giving him an earful for leaving so suddenly. Muston didn't mind. Everything went quite well; he made new sales and extended his thankfulness to Grima. Everyth . . .

Suddenly paying attention to what he was holding, Muston realized the pouch felt much heavier than 50 simple gold coins.

* * *

"I just don't understand your apprehensiveness." Micaiah said as she was led into Grima's tent. "I have my doubts Zihark would mind you asking about Ilyana. I also don't understand why Ilyana would tell Zihark at all."

Taking a seat on his favorite chair, Grima looks on, at Micaiah, with dumbfoundedness; though this is quickly changed to one of understanding.

"Well that is understandable; the two has kept it hidden quite well." He said to no one in particular.

Micaiah isn't stupid to what Grima has implied. But that doesn't mean she isn't naïve to this sort of topic. "Are you meaning to imply that the two of them have an illicit relationship."

"They wish." Grima laughed at Micaiah expense.

Though it would be best if he didn't go into detail how the two have been making late-night rendezvous.

Micaiah on the other hand, continued her unfocused ramblings.

"I can't believe those two are so close. Especially Zihark, isn't he engaged with Meg. Oh I can't bear how she would handle this."

"Micaiah. Please don't make it sound so scandalous then it really is." He sighed with worry. "You can't possibly believe that Zihark is actually engaged, do you?"

"He's not?"

Grima honestly face palmed at that.

"You're not very good with these subtleties, are you?"

Micaiah quickly took offense at the implication.

"I'm more than capable; I was simply busy with official business." She sputtered to defend herself.

Grima smiled widely at the unfortunate, and likely unintentional, excuse.

"And I truly appreciate your effort, Micaiah." He happily said.

To Micaiah's credit, it only took a good half-minute to realize why Grima had such a stupid, grin.

"I don't want to hear about relationships from you." She said in a low voice.

Deciding her cute pout was enough payment for the teasing, Grima gave his present company some room to breathe. "Since you're here, would you like something to drink?"

Seizing the opportunity, Micaiah graciously took the offer as a prelude to the formal change of topic.

"Were you really so concerned? About being viewed as bought?" She curiously asked.

"No one wants to be seen as corrupt." He lightheartedly teased. "Though, it is important to be mindful of political ramifications when in a position of power. Even when making an innocuous choice; outside of official capacities."

"Sounds like one of your convenient excuses." She appraised him.

Grima merely shrugged at her accusations. "I won't argue."

Micaiah took note of his words and wisely chose to drop it. "How is the charm going?"

"Practically done." He answered as he turned to his working desk where the completed charm was left. "All that is left is for the dew to fully settle into the wooden frame."

"Quite impressive." Micaiah praised. "It's fortuitous how quickly you've completed this task."

Grima merely smiled to Micaiah. Clearly catching what she was insinuating.

"Just shows how seriously you're taking this." She said with a slight sigh.

"And the craftsmanship." She exclaimed. "Even from where I'm sitting, I could feel the aura emanating from the charm."

Raising his eyebrows with her words, Grima turned to Micaiah with a calculating eye. "You can feel the aura?"

"Yes, it's quite relaxing, almost like an ocean breeze."

"Most mages aren't capable of detecting charms, especially ones I've made." Grima wondered aloud, worried he might actually be losing his touch.

"Though you are a light mage." He mulled to himself.

"Aren't I also a mage?" She rose in eyebrow.

"Contrary to common belief; light and the dark arts are much more intertwined, so it stands to reason that you can detect a simple charm." A smirk began to form on Grimas face. "And you are most certainly not most mages."

Micaiah huffed at Grimas antics, and chose to not dignify it with a response. Opting, instead to take a sip from her drink.

Though his reasoning is sound, Grima couldn't help but feel relieved that Micaiah didn't make a huff at him making another convenient excuse. If she was ignorant, too distracted with his comment, or chose to ignore it; he'll probably never know.

"You once said your charms were much more effective than those of seers." Micaiah suddenly questioned.

Eyeing her questionably. "I said something to that affect; yes."

"So you've met other fortune tellers?" She pressed on, ignoring his looks.

"I've met many self-proclaimed oracles." Wondering where she was heading with this line of questioning. "Almost none of them impressed me."

"So it would be accurate to say that you don't normally take their statements seriously?"

Taken aback by the presumptuous statement, Grima had half the mind to correct her, only did he realize that is an accurate assumption to make. Though he can't help but want to give an exception to the rule, due to recent events.

"It would be hard for me to take them seriously." He cautiously answered.

"Then why do you always refer to my word?" She quickly asked.

Though a silly question on its face, it does have merit with added context. Though a silly question, regardless.

"You're more than just some wise woman." He plainly said.

"I'm that impressive?" She quickly asked.

Is she trying to fish compliments? No. There is reason for the escalation of questions, and it's probably high time to get to the bottom of this.

"You sure are impressive." He dutifully answered the question. "Though I can't comprehend the reasoning for these series of questions?"

Micaiah visibly deflated at the question. It's clear she hedged a lot into this.

"I just wa-." She stopped then started again. "I just want to know why you trust me."

Grima couldn't exactly blame her for doubting him, considering to what he admitted a week ago. In fact, it's within her character to be so blunt; at least with the knowledge that privacy would be duly maintained.

"Even for everything that's happened, my reasoning is still the same from the day we've-"

"That's exactly it!" Micaiah rudely interrupted. "You've always deferred to me, long before Terin."

"You're smart, cunning and often times quite daring." She began. "You could've easily convinced everyone to nominate you as Vice-commander, yet you didn't, instead you followed me."

"I remember those words you told me, and they mean a great deal to me, even now. But now seeing you up close, I wonder why you would continue to follow me, or at all."

Grima was about to answer, but Micaiah quickly signaled him to continue listening.

"And this isn't about how deserving I feel, but I genuinely wonder how truthful you were to me then."

The accusation cut deep into Grima, not because of how untruthful it was, but how close it was to the truth.

"Everything I said then was and is the truth." He defended.

"The more I repeat the words in my head, the more I realize how convenient it sounds." She repeated those same words from a week ago.

He could only stare blankly at Micaiah, fully taken aback by the sudden development. Her truthful accusations. Had his lies finally caught up to him?

There may be a way to sidestep things, yet Grima is no fool. He knew, like any good tactician to make tactical retreats from untenable situations to regroup and tackle the problem with a fresh perspective.

Yet retreating now would only expose him so decisively; it would burn any and all bridges of good faith he's built. Nothing is worst for a schemer, other than being exposed as a compulsive liar.

"I anticipated this." Micaiah openly sighed in resignation when Grima kept his silence. "Don't worry Grima, I don't intend for you put on the rope yourself. Or anyone else to know for that matter."

"Excuse me?" He is honestly confused as her tone, was not at all in line with the severity of the accusation.

"Thinking about it now, it makes sense you have something to gain." She passively noted, ignoring Grima's confusion. "You're simply that calculating."

"Excuse me?" He dumbly repeated.

"But you're simply more complex than that." She laughed to herself with that description. "Maybe that's why I feel so at peace."

"Micaiah, please!" Grima yelled, finally gaining her attention. "I've indulged your incoherent ramblings; so please, make sense now."

Micaiah honestly looked embarrassed. "Sorry, I got ahead of myself."

"That's okay. Let's start from the beginning." Bringing order once again to the discussion. "You claim I'm not being entirely honest with my reasons to you?"

"You aren't." Micaiah firmly answered.

Deep breaths Grima.

"Okay. Let's assume that is the case here." Even with being called out, he has no intention of admitting this fact to her. "How can you be okay with that?"

"No matter how you present your . . . myriad of excuses and reasoning's; there's still kindness in them." She softly said.

"They're selfish." Grima suddenly finding himself as the devil's advocate against himself. Though he was certainly intrigued with her justification, he's also, honestly, upset with her naivety.

"There is kindness even in selfishness." She gently snapped back. "No matter how you rationalized it, the decisions you've made always led to a better end. I don't think that's selfish."

"I'm not a saint." He quickly dismissed her acclaims.

"Oh heavens no, if that were the case, Izuka would be a paragon of knowledge." The barb, earned her an offended glare from Grima.

"You're much more complicated than that." She amended, somewhat assuaging his wounded pride. "Even through your aloof and calculative facade, you're just a kind-hearted man who wants to do good to the people around you."

Even though he gave the usual standoffish impression; he had the mind to interrupt her, to either correct her false impressions, to stop the embarrassment he was feeling or a combination of the two. Yet he allowed her to continue, patiently sitting across her with a critical and somewhat amused look.

"So even if we started out on false-pretenses, our relationship now; I feel, is genuine."

"So that's why you're okay with it?" He finally asked.

"No." Grima was not expecting such a quick and blunt answer.

"I'm not so delusional to accept such behavior wholly." She sat up straight, losing almost all the reverie she had earlier. "If circumstances were any different, you and I would be bitter enemies."

Shocking her statement may be; she merely put into words a reality fully known to Grima. So as much as he celebrates the intelligence of his fellow partners; this only emphasizes the large question mark floating through his head. What is it, she's trying to gain?

"Yet we're not, and I intend to fully exploit that fact."

"Pardon?" Once again, confused with her choice of words.

"I'm not so accepting because; soon, there wouldn't be any point to accepting an old memory. Soon there will be a point where your misdirection's will be unnecessary and the two of us would look back at this silly moment and laugh."

"I guarantee it." She confidently declared.

The boldness of her words, truly gob smacked Grima from immediately replying to her. Yet, true to form, he knows exactly where he stands on this.

"To be clear." Grima finally finding the words. "You intend to reform, me?" His doubt bleeding very heavily onto his words.

"I wouldn't go so far, merely to make the whole exercise unnecessary." She casually amended.

Now sitting back onto the back of his chair, Grima can't help but note that she's being obtuse with her answers. Yet this is overshadowed by how forward she is being.

"You can't be serious." He massaged his head, as if fighting a headache.

"I am." She matter-of-factly answered, much to his exasperation.

"That wasn't a question." He quietly said to himself. "If you recall, I believe you said something similar a week ago."

"That's different."

"Different?"

"Last time, it was a concern between the Vice-commander and her Adjutant Strategos, this is personal, between you and me." She unhelpfully pointed out.

With that declaration Micaiah chose this time to make her exit.

"You'll leave, now?" Flustered by her sudden behavior, as Grima practically leapt out of his chair.

"I don't need your permission to stay or do anything." Not bothering to stop or look back at Grima. "I've said everything that needed to be said."

"Before you leave answer me this." Micaiah stopped at the cusp of the exit, yet still refusing to turn to look at him.

"You said you knew; you knew that I wasn't being forthwith." This will be only time he will admit his behavior. To Micaiah. "So why now? What changed for you to be so interested with me?"

Standing quietly, she didn't immediately answer, nor leave. Like she was purposely adding suspense to the situation.

Finally she looked straight to Grima with a look that to him, gave him pause. "Since you've been interested with me."

And then she was gone.

Leaving Grima flabbergasted.

It's been hours since his meeting with the white-haired Maiden, and by all accounts everything appears to be normal. Grima is, as usual, currently slaving away at a pile of documents. Dinner to, was uneventful, sharing a table with the usual company of the Maiden and her bodyguard. Nothing gave away the outright turmoil going through his mind.

So sick of the worry, Grima did what he did best to distract from himself. He buried himself in work. For three hours he worked diligently; yet occasionally the topic of annoyance would rear its golden eyes back to the forefront.

It would eventually die down, but now, it seems intent to stay. So here he is stuck, with a quill pen at hand, tapping intently as if the document at hand had anything difficult for him.

"Still upset about dinner?" Robin popped up for the first time.

"Among other things." He answered with a huff.

"Yeah the chicken was too dry for my liking." He answered sarcastically, much to Grima's annoyance. "But you have to give her credit; she kept her word."

"I'll give her credit that she's making it difficult at broaching the topic." He mockingly praised.

"You know, coming from you that means a lot."

Grima simply snorted at that, he didn't really disagree with that. Though saying it aloud is another thing entirely.

"But I understand your apprehension." Robin continued. "I didn't expect her to find out so quickly, let alone confront you so openly; as private meetings go."

"If it were anyone else, I would say they were aiming for something." Robin added.

"In a way; she is." Grima supplied.

"Hmm?" Robin hummed to himself. "That doesn't exactly sound like you're resigned to this."

"In a matter of speaking." He answered vaguely. "Though, it would be nice if I could give my piece. For my sanity of course."

"So you are accepting this?" He openly accused. "Thought you would brood on this for longer."

"Who do you think I am?"

Robin never got the chance to answer as Grima instantly noticed a familiar presence has taken its old perch outside his tent. He didn't expect the spy to return to its old routine so quickly. But that appraisal quickly changed; as he noted the figure quickly made a break towards the entrance of his quarters.

Just as Grima faced the entrance, he narrowed his eyes at the darkened figure standing in the middle of his domain. Without his permission; no less. The nerve.

"My employer agrees to the set terms." He announced suddenly.

"Oh, so quickly with a response?" Grima answered choosing to ignore the breach of decorum.

"My employer believed a prompt response would show the faith he views this new partnership would be." The spy answered monotonously.

"I was speaking to the speed you relayed and answered my proposal." The former shadow simply stood there, showing no emotion whatsoever. "Your employer must have been close. Maybe he's residing in one of the many manors in the countryside."

Again, his implications provoke no reactions.

"We're also nearing the border." A twitch at his right hand. Barely noticeable, but it was there. "Though I have my doubts it's the shared border with Begnion."

"Are you going anywhere with this?" He suddenly questioned. "Because I'm not paid to listen to your ramblings."

"If you have nothing else to share, then by all means." Grima showing the exit with a gesture of his hand." You were never invited in the first place."

That last statement had a much more dangerous tone to it. And with this obvious que, the spy quickly disappeared into the night. Grima also got the impression he left the camp proper.

"Letting him go so quickly?" Robin asked. "You could've provoked more information out of him."

"I completely agree." Giving the impression he was returning to the paperwork before him. "But his unannounced visit could've been noticed by others; if he were to stay longer."

"Who would care that someone would visit you this late-." Robin was about to question but quickly caught on to who he was referring to. "Would the Laguz say anything? They haven't before."

"With the exception of Volug; you're correct. The reason they didn't before is because it didn't involve them." Grima began to explain. "Rafiel and Nailah are guests, full stop; this war is none of their business, the coming and goings of the camp is none of their business, even potential spies are none of their business."

"But this clandestine meeting is?"

"It's because of my personal relationship with the two of them. If they get the impression that I'm being coerced, or worse; they could involve a mutual friend of ours."

"Micaiah." Robin simply answered.

"Then the real problems begin."

* * *

 **A/N Here we are once again at the end. As usual please review on your thoughts on the chapter. Helps a lot.**


End file.
